JOHNSONIAN MISCELLANIES
G. BIRKBECK HILL
VOL II.
HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE
AMEN CORNER, E.C.
JOHNSONIAN
MISCELLANIES
ARRANGED AND EDITED
BY
GEORGE BIRKBECK HILL, D.C.L., LL.D.
HONORARY FELLOW OF PEMBROKE COLLEGE, OXFORD
EDITOR OF ' BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON '
AND OF ' THE LETTERS OF SAMUEL JOHNSON '
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
MDCCCXCVII
Ojforfc
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
BY HORACE HART, M.A.
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
v. x
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
Apophthegms, &c, from Hawkins's Edition of Johnson's Works . . I
Extracts from James Boswell's Letters to Edmond Malone . . .21
Anecdotes from the Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell's Diary of a Visit to
England in 1775 39
Anecdotes from Pennington's Memoirs of Mrs. Carter .... 58
Anecdotes from Joseph Cradock's Memoirs 61
Anecdotes from Richard Cumberland's Memoirs 72
Extracts from Sir John Hawkins's Life of Johnson . . . -79
Anecdotes from Miss Hawkins's Memoirs 139
Narrative by John Hoole of Johnson's end . . . . . . 145
Anecdotes from the Life of Johnson published by Kearsley . . . 161
Anecdotes by Lady Knight 171
Anecdotes from Hannah More's Memoirs 177
Anecdotes by Bishop Percy 208
Sir Joshua Reynolds on Johnson's Character 219
Sir Joshua Reynolds on Johnson's Influence 229
Sir Joshua Reynolds's Two Dialogues in Imitation of Johnson's Style of
Conversation —
Dialogue I ' . . 232
Dialogue II 237
Recollections of Dr. Johnson by Miss Reynolds 250
Anecdotes by William Seward 301
Anecdotes by George Steevens . . . . . . . .312
vi Contents.
PAGE
Anecdotes from the Rev. Percival Stockdale's Memoirs . . . 330
A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Samuel Johnson by Thomas Tyers . 335
Narrative of the Last Week of Dr. Johnson's Life by the Right Hon.
William Windham 382
MINOR ANECDOTES—
By Robert Barclay "389
By H. D. Best 390
By Sir Brooke Boothby 391
By the Rev. W. Cole . 392
By William Cooke . 393
From the European Magazine 394
By Richard Green 397
By T. Green -399
By Ozias Humphry 400
By Dr. Lettsom 402
From Croker's Edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson . . . 403
By Dr. John Moore 408
By John Nichols 409
By the Rev. Mr. Parker 413
By William Weller Pepys 416
By the Rev. Hastings Robinson 417
By Mrs. Rose 419
From Shaw's History of Staffordshire 422
Adam Smith on Dr. Johnson 423
Dugald Stewart on Boswell's Anecdotes 425
From Gilbert Stuart's History of the Rise of the Arts of Design in
the United States 425
By the Rev. Richard Warner 426
By Mr. Wickins 427
Styan Thirlby, by Dr. Johnson . . . . . . . 430
LETTERS OF DR. JOHNSON—
To Samuel Richardson -435
To Samuel Richardson 436
To Samuel Richardson . . . . . . . . 438
To Dr. George Hay 439
To the Rev. Thomas Percy 440
Contents. vii
PAGE
To the Rev. Thomas Percy . .441
To the Rev. Edward Lye 441
To William Strahan 442
To James Macpherson 446
To— . . . .447
To the Rev. Dr. Taylor 447
To Miss Reynolds 448
To Miss Reynolds . . 449
To Miss Reynolds 450
To Miss Porter 450
To the Rev. Mr. Allen 451
To Miss Thrale 451
To the Rev. Dr. Taylor 452
To the Rev. James Compton 453
To Miss Reynolds 453
To Francesco Sastres 454
To Griffith Jones 454
To Miss Reynolds (enclosing a letter to be sent in her name to
Sir Joshua Reynolds) 455
Sir Joshua Reynolds to Miss Reynolds . . . . . . . 456
James Boswell to Sir Joshua Reynolds 457
James Boswell to Lord Thurlow 459
Sir Joshua Reynolds to James Boswell 460
Dr. Adams to Dr. Scott . 460
ADDENDA 463
INDEX , 469
DICTA PHILOSOPHI . 511
APOPHTHEGMS, SENTIMENTS
OPINIONS, & OCCASIONAL REFLECTIONS1
DR. JOHNSON used to say, that where secrecy or mystery
began, vice or roguery was not far off; and that he leads in
general an ill life, who stands in fear of no man's observation 2.
When a friend of his who had not been very lucky in his first
wife, married a second, he said — Alas ! another instance of the
triumph of hope over experience 3.
Of Sheridan's writings on Elocution, he said, they were
a continual renovation of hope, and an unvaried succession of
disappointments 4.
1 From the eleventh volume of Sir
John Hawkins's edition of Johnson's
Works (pp. 195-216), published in
1787-9, in 13 vols. 8vo. Many of
the 'Apophthegms,' £c., there in
cluded, which had been copied from
Steevens's Collection in the Euro
pean Magazine for January, 1875,
will be found post, under Anecdotes
by George Steevens. One or two,
moreover, which in like manner were
borrowed from Seward, will be found
post, under his name.
2 See ante, i. 326, for his dislike
of * mysteriousness in trifles,' and
post, p. 8, for ' the vices of retire
ment.3 Boswell, recounting how
Johnson in the Oxford post-coach
* talked without reserve of the state of
his affairs,' continues : — * Indeed his
VOL. II.
openness with people at a first inter
view was remarkable.' Life, iv. 284.
See/0j/, in Seward's Anecdotes.
3 Life, ii. 128. The Lord Chan
cellor Audley, in his speech in par
liament on Henry VIII's troubles in
his two first marriages, said : — ' What
man of middle condition would not
this deter from marrying a third
time ? Yet this our most excellent
prince again condescends to contract
matrimony.' Part. Hist. i. 528.
4 For Johnson's contempt of Sheri
dan's oratory see Life, i. 453, iv.
222.
In the Life, ii. 122, this anecdote
is thus recorded on the authority of
Dr. Maxwell : — * Of a certain player
he remarked, that his conversation
usually threatened and announced
B He
Apophthegms, Sentiments
He used to say, that no man read long together with a folio
on his table : — Books, said he, that you may carry to the fire,
and hold readily in your hand, are the most useful after all.
He would say, such books form the man of general and easy
reading z.
He was a great friend to books like the French E sprits d'un
tel; for example, Beauties of Watts 2, &c., &c., at which, said he,
a man will often look and be tempted to go on, when he would
have been frightened at books of a larger size and of a more
erudite appearance.
C Being once asked if he ever embellished a story — No, said
A! he; a story is to lead either to the knowledge of a fact or
f character, and is good for nothing if it be not strictly and
L. literally true3.
Round numbers, said he, are always false 4.
Watts's Improvement of the Mind was a very favourite book
with him 5 ; he used to recommend it, as he also did Le Diction-
AbbeL'Avocat6.
he distinguished himself by the vio
lence of his attacks, first on Washing
ton and John Adams, and next on
Jefferson. Diet, of Nat. Biog. It
was a long step from The Beauties
of Johnson.
Lamb wrote on Feb. 26, 1808: —
'We have Specimens of Ancient Eng
lish Poets, Specimens of Modern
English Poets, Specimens of Ancient
English Prose Writers without end.
They used to be called Beauties.
You have seen Beauties of Shake
speare; so have many people that
never saw any beauties in Shake
speare.' Ainger's Letters of Lamb,
i. 244.
3 Ante, i. 225.
4 Life, iii. 226, n. 4.
5 In his Life of Watts he says :—
' Few books have been perused by
me with greater pleasure than his
Improvement of the Mind? Works,
viii. 385.
6 This work is not in the British
Museum.
He
more than it performed ; that he fed
you with a continual renovation of
hope, to end in a constant succes
sion of disappointment.'
According to the Edinburgh Cou-
rant, June 16, 1792, this player was
Macklin. Foote accused him ' of
reading in the morning for the pur
pose of shewing off at night.' Cooke's
Memoirs of Macklin, p. 246. See
post, in Steevens's Anecdotes.
1 'Johnson advised me to read
just as inclination prompted me,
which alone, he said, would do me
any good ; for I had better go into
company than read a set task.' Let
ters of Boswell, p. 28.
2 In 1781 The Beauties of Johnson
was published. Life,'\v. 148. Accord
ing to Dr. Anderson (Life of Johnson,
ed. 1815, p. 231) the selection was
made by Thomson Callender, the
nephew of the poet Thomson, who
eleven years later fled to America to
escape a prosecution for his Political
Progress of Great B?itain. There
Opinions, and Occasional Reflections. 3
He has been accused of treating Lord Lyttelton roughly in
his life of him ; he assured a friend, however, that he kept back
a very ridiculous anecdote of him, relative to a question he put
to a great divine of his time *.
Johnson's account of Lord Lyttelton's envy to Shenstone for
his improvements in his grounds, &c. 8, was confirmed by an in
genious writer. Spence was in the house for a fortnight with the
Lytteltons, before they offered to shew him Shenstone's place.
When accused of mentioning ridiculous anecdotes in the lives
of the poets, he said, he should not have been an exact bio
grapher if he had omitted them. The business of such a one,
( said he, is to give a complete account of the person whose life
is writing, and to discriminate him from all other persons
any peculiarities of character or sentiment he may happen
to have 3.
He spoke Latin with great fluency and elegance. He said,
indeed, he had taken great pains about it 4.
A very famous schoolmaster said, he had rather take Johnson's
1 'Dr. Johnson, in \\\<=>Lifeof Lyttel- of a walk to detect a deception ; in
to;*, suppressed an anecdote which juries of which Shenstone would
would have made his memory ridi- heavily complain.' Works, viii. 410.
culous. He was a man rather melan- 3 Malone, recording a conversa-
choly in his disposition, and used to tion with Johnson about the account
declare to his friends, that when he he gave of Addison's reclaiming his
went to Vauxhall he always supposed loan to Steele by an execution, con-
pleasure to be in the next box to his tinues : — ' I then mentioned to him
— at least, that he himself was so that some people thought that Mr.
unhappily situated as always to be Addison's character was so pure, that
in the wrong box for it.' European the fact, though trtte, ought to have
Magazine, 1798, p. 376. been suppressed. He saw no reason
For the Life of Lyttelton see Life, for this. " If nothing but the bright
iv. 57, 64. side of characters should be shewn,
2 * For a while the inhabitants of we should sit down in despondency,
Hagley affected to tell their ac- and think it utterly impossible to
quaintance of the little fellow that imitate them in any thing."' Life,
was trying to make himself admired; iv. 53. ' M'Leod asked, if it was not
but when by degrees the Leasowes wrong in Orrery to expose the defects
forced themselves into notice, they of a man with whom he lived in
took care to defeat the curiosity intimacy. JOHNSON. "Why no, Sir,
which they could not suppress, by after the man is dead ; for then it is
conducting their visitants perversely done historically." ' Ib. v. 238.
to inconvenient points of view, and See also ib. i. 9, 30, 32.
introducing them at the wrong end 4 Ib. ii. 125, 404. Ante, \. 417.
B 2 opinion
Apophthegms, Sentiments
opinion about any Latin composition, than that of any other
person in England.
Dr. Sumner, of Harrow x, used to tell this story of Johnson :
they were dining one day, with many other persons, at
Mrs. Macaulay's ; she had talked a long time at dinner about
the natural equality of mankind ; Johnson, when she had finished
her harangue, rose up from the table, and with great solemnity
of countenance, and a bow to the ground, said to the servant,
who was waiting behind his chair, Mr. John, pray be seated in
my place, and permit me to wait upon you in my turn : your
mistress says, you hear, that we are all equal 2.
When some one was lamenting Foote's unlucky fate in being
kicked in Dublin, Johnson said he was glad of it ; he is rising in
the world, said he : when he was in England, no one thought it
worth while to kick him 3.
He was much pleased with the following repartee: Fiat
experimental* in corpore vili, said a French physician to his
colleague, in speaking of the disorder of a poor man that
understood Latin, and who was brought into an hospital ; corpus
non tarn vile est, says the patient, pro quo Chris tus ipse non
dedignatus est mori 4.
Johnson used to say, a man was a scoundrel that was afraid of
any thing 5.
After having disused swimming for many years, he went into
the river at Oxford, and swam away to a part of it that he had
been told of as a dangerous place, and where some one had been
drowned 6.
He waited on Lord Marchmont 7 to make some inquiries after
particulars of Mr. Pope's life ; his first question was, — What
kind of a man was Mr. Pope in his conversation ? his lordship
answered, that if the conversation did not take something
1 Ante, i. 161. 5 For Johnson's one dread see
2 Life, i. 447 ; iii. 77. post, p. 16 ; for his use of the word
3 Ante, i. 424. scoundrel see Life, iii. i.
4 * Let the experiment be tried 6 Ib. ii. 299.
on a worthless body.' « Not so 7 Ib. iii. 392. Lord Marchmont's
worthless is the body for which daughter gave Sir Walter Scott 'per-
Christ himself thought it no scorn sonal reminiscences of Pope.' Lock-
to die.' hart's Scott, ed. 1839, i. 343.
of
Opinions, and Occasional Reflections. 5
of a lively or epigrammatick turn, he fell asleep, or perhaps
pretended to do so x.
Talking one day of the patronage the great sometimes affect
to give to literature, and literary men : — ' Andrew Millar,' says
he, ' is the Maecenas of the age V
Of the state of learning among the Scots, he said : — ' It is with
their learning as with provisions in a besieged town, every one
has a mouthful, and no one a bellyful!3.1
Of Sir Joshua Reynolds he requested three things ; that he
would not work on a Sunday ; that he would read a portion of
Scripture on that day; and that he would forgive him a debt
which he had incurred for some benevolent purpose 4.
When he first felt the stroke of palsy, he prayed to God
that he would spare his mind, whatever he thought fit to do with
his body 5.
To some lady who was praising Shenstone's poems very much,
and who had an Italian greyhound lying by the fire, he said,
e Shenstone holds amongst poets the same rank your dog holds
amongst dogs ; he has not the sagacity of the hound, the docility
of the spaniel, nor the courage of the bull-dog, yet he is still
a pretty fellow 6.'
1 'When he wanted to sleep he 4 In these requests Reynolds
" nodded in company " ; and once ' readily acquiesced.' However, after
slumbered at his own table while the a time he resumed his Sunday work.
Prince of Wales was talking of poetry.' Ib. iv. 414, n. i. 'Sir Godfrey
Works, viii. 309. Kneller,' according to Pope, ' called
2 For Andrew Millar, the book- employing the pencil the prayer of a
seller, see Life, i. 287, n. 3. painter.' Warton's Pope's Works,
3 Ib. ii. 363. ed. 1822, viii. 213. Szt post, p. 203.
Sir Walter Scott, in his Address 5 Describing the stroke to Mrs.
at the opening of the Edinburgh Thrale, he wrote : — ' I was alarmed
Academy, quoting Johnson's saying, and prayed God that however he
continued : — ' Sturdy Scotsman as might afflict my body he would spare
he was, he was not more attached to my understanding. This prayer that
Scotland than to truth ; and it must I might try the integrity of my facul-
be admitted that there was some ties I made in Latin verse.' Letters,
foundation for the Doctor's remark.' ii. 301 ; Life, iv. 230 ; ante, i. in.
Lockhart's Scott, ed. 1839, vii. 271. 6 'We talked of Shenstone. Dr.
' A Scotchman must be a very sturdy Johnson said he was a good layer-
moralist who does not love Scot- out of land, but would not allow him
land better than truth.' Life, ii. to approach excellence as a poet.'
311, #. 4. Ib. v. 267.
Johnson
Apophthegms, Sentiments
Johnson said he was better pleased with the commendations
bestowed on his account of the Hebrides than on any book he
had ever written. Burke, says he, thought well of the philosophy
of it ; Sir William Jones of the observations on language ; and
Mr. Jackson of those on trade x.
Of Foote's wit and readiness of repartee he thought very
highly ; — * He was/ says he, * the readiest dog at an escape I ever
knew ; if you thought you had him on the ground fairly down,
he was upon his legs and over your shoulders again in an
instant V
When some one asked him, whether they should introduce
Hugh Kelly, the author, to him ; — ' No, Sir,' says he, ' I never
desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has
read.' Yet when his play was acted for the benefit of his
widow, Johnson furnished a prologue 3.
He repeated poetry with wonderful energy and feeling. He
was seen to weep whilst he repeated Goldsmith's character of
the English in his Traveller •, beginning thus :
' Stern o'er each bosom,' &c.4
1 ' Dr. Johnson observed, that every
body commended such parts of his
Journey to the Western Islands, as
were in their own way. "For in
stance, (said he,) Mr. Jackson (the
all-knowing) told me there was more
good sense upon trade in it, than he
should hear in the House of Com
mons in a year, except from Burke.
Jones commended the part which
treats of language ; Burke that which
describes the inhabitants of moun
tainous countries." ' Life, iii. 137. It
was in the reflections on the life and
economy of the Highlanders, and on
the changes rapidly taking place in
the clan system, that 'the philosophy'
was found.
For Jackson see ib. iii. 19; Let-
ters, ii. 349.
' One species of wit Foote has in
an eminent degree, that of escape.
You drive him into a corner with
both hands ; but he's gone, Sir, when
you think you have got him — like an
animal that jumps over your head.3
Life, iii. 69. * Foote is the most in
compressible fellow that I ever knew ;
when you have driven him into a
corner, and think you are sure of
him, he runs through between your
legs, or jumps over your head, and
makes his escape.' Ib. v. 391.
3 Id. iii. 113 ; ante, i. 181, 432.
' On reading over this Prologue to
Dr. Johnson the morning after it was
spoken, the Doctor told me that
instead of renewed hostilities he
wrote revengeful petulance, and did
not seem pleased with the alteration.'
MS. note by Rev. J. Hussey.
The couplet as altered, stands : —
'Let no renewed hostilities invade
Th' oblivious grave's inviolable
shade.'
4 It was at Oban that this hap-
He
Opinions, and Occasional Reflections. 7
He was supposed to have assisted Goldsmith very much in that
poem, but has been heard to say, that he might have contributed
three or four lines, taking together all he had done r.
He held all authors very cheap, that were not satisfied with
the opinion of the publick about them. He used to say, that
every man who writes, thinks he can amuse or inform mankind,
and they must be the best judges of his pretensions2.
Of Warburton he always spoke well. He gave me, says he,
his good word when it was of use to me. Warburton, in the
Preface to his Shakespeare, has commended Johnson's Observa
tions on Macbeth 3.
Two days before he died, he said, with some pleasantry, — Poor
Johnson is dying; **** will say, he dies of taking a few grains
more of squills than were ordered him ; **** will say, he dies of
the scarifications made by the surgeon in his leg4. His last act
of understanding is said to have been exerted in giving his
blessing to a young lady that requested it of him 5.
He was always ready to assist any authors in correcting their
works, and selling them to booksellers. — I have done writing,
said he, myself, and should assist those that do write 6.
pened. 'We talked of Goldsmith's prose?"' Warton's Pope's Works,
Traveller, of which Dr. Johnson iv. 199, n.
spoke highly; and, while I was help- 3 Life, i. 175; jv. 288. Johnson,
ing him on with his great coat, he in his Shakespeare, often ridicules
repeated from it the character of the Warburton. See ante, i. 381, and
British nation, which he did with post, in Steevens's Anecdotes.
such energy, that the tear started 4 The supposed speakers were
into his eye.' Life, v. 344. Brocklesby and Heberden. The wit
1 Ib. ii. 5. has been lost in the narration ; for
2 Ib. iv. 172 ; post, p. 19. Smollett, what Johnson said see/tfj/, in Wind-
writing of the Age of George II, ham's Anecdotes.
says : — ' Genius in writing spon- 3 Life, iv. 418 ; ante, i. 447, n. 5.
taneously arose; and, though neg- 6 Ib. ii. 195 ; iii. 373; iv. 121.
lected by the great, flourished under The Rev. John Hussey wrote on
the culture of a public which had his copy of the first edition of Bos-
pretensions to taste, and piqued it- well, opposite a passage about profits
self on encouraging literary merit.' of authors (Ib. iv. 121) : — ' Mem.
History of England, ed. 1800, v. Mr. Townshend's manuscripts. I
379- think it was Mr. Allen, the late
' When somebody was highly prais- Minister of Wandsworth, who told
ing Milton George II asked, "Why me that Mr.Townshend (if that were
did he not write his Paradise Lost in his name, he was afterwards either
When
8
Apophthegms, Sentiments
When some one asked him for what he should marry, he
replied, first, for virtue ; secondly, for wit ; thirdly, for beauty ;
and fourthly, for money1.
He thought worse of the vices of retirement than of those
of society 2.
He attended Mr. Thrale in his last moments, and stayed in
the room praying, as is imagined, till he had drawn his last
breath. — His servants, said he, would have waited upon him in
this awful period, and why not his friend 3 ?
He was extremely fond of reading the lives of great and
learned persons 4. Two or three years before he died, he applied
to a friend of his to give him a list of those in the French
language that were well written and genuine. He said, that
Bolingbroke had declared he could not read Middleton's life
of Cicero 5.
He was a great enemy to the present fashionable way of
supposing worthless and infamous persons mad.
He was not apt to judge ill of persons without good reasons ;
Printer or Stationer to .the East India
Company) in the early part of his
life was seized with the cacotthes
scribendi, and having finished a Pam
phlet wished much to have Mr. John
son's opinion of it, before he offered
it to the Publick. So without any
previous knowledge or introduction,
he called on Johnson, and humbly
requested him to peruse the Manu
script of his first production ; which
was with great good nature im
mediately acquiesced in : when he
had finished it he said to Mr. Towns-
hend, " Pray, Sir, are you of any
profession?" "A Printer, at your
service." "Then, Sir, I would recom
mend you to print any work rather
than your own ; it will turn out more
to your advantage if you get paid for
it, and if it be worth printing, in
finitely more to your credit." This
interview Townshend spoke of in his
latter days with grateful remem
brance ; a different reception, he said,
would have flattered his vanity and
allured him to poverty and con
tempt.'
1 Life, ii. 128 ; iv. 131.
2 Ib. v. 62.
3 Ib. iv. 84 ; ante, i. 96.
* Ib. \. 425 ; v. 79.
5 Johnson would not read Boling-
broke's works — at all events his
Philosophical works. Ib. i. 330.
* My Lord Bolingbroke has lost
his wife. . . . Dr. Middleton told me
a compliment she made him two
years ago which I thought pretty.
She said she was persuaded that he
was a very great writer, for she un
derstood his works better than any
other English book, and that she
had observed that the best writers
were always the most intelligible.'
[She was a Frenchwoman.] Wai-
pole's Letters, ii. 202.
an
Opinions, and Occasional Reflections. 9
an old friend of his used to say, that in general he thought too
well of mankind J.
One day, on seeing an old terrier lie asleep by the fire-side at
Streatham, he said. Presto, you are, if possible, a more lazy dog
than I am 2.
Being told that Churchill had abused him under the character
of Pomposo, in his Ghost, — I always thought, said he, he was
a shallow fellow and I think so still 3.
When some one asked him how he felt at the indifferent
reception of his tragedy at Drury-lane ; — Like the Monument,
said he, and as unshaken as that fabrick 4.
Being asked by Dr. Lawrence what he thought the best
system of education, he replied, — School in school-hours, and
home-instruction in the intervals 5.
I would never, said he, desire a young man to neglect his
business for the purpose of pursuing his studies, because it is
unreasonable ; I would only desire him to read at those hours
when he would otherwise be unemployed. I will not promise
that he will be a Bentley ; but if he be a lad of any parts, he
will certainly make a sensible man 6.
The picture of him by Sir Joshua Reynolds, which was painted
for Mr. Beauclerk, and is now Mr. Langton's, and scraped in
1 f As he was ever one of the most had ; for he has shewn more fertility
quick-sighted men I ever knew in than I expected. To be sure, he is
discovering the good and amiable a tree that cannot produce good fruit :
qualities of others, so was he ever he only bears crabs. But, Sir, a
inclined to palliate their defects.' tree that produces a great many
Hawkins, p. 50. crabs is better than a tree which
'Reynolds said of Johnson: — produces only a few.' Life, 1.418. See
" He was not easily imposed upon also ib. i. 406.
by professions to honesty and can- 4 Ib. i. 199.
dour ; but he appeared to have little 5 See ante, i. 1 6 1, where he op-
suspicion of hypocrisy in religion." ' posed the imposition of holiday tasks
Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 459. See also by the schoolmaster. For Dr. Law-
Life, ii. 236. rence see Life, ii. 296.
2 Ante, i. 189. 6 ' Snatches of reading (said John-
3 'No, Sir, I called the fellow a son) will not make a Bentley or
blockhead at first, and I will call a Clarke. They are however in a
him a blockhead still. However, I certain degree advantageous.' Ib.
will acknowledge that I have a better iv. 21.
opinion of him now, than I once
mezzotinto
io Apophthegms, Sentiments
mezzotinto by Doughty, is extremely like him ; there is in it
that appearance of a labouring working mind, of an indolent
reposing body, which he had to a very great degree. Beauclerk
wrote under his picture,
lingenium ingens
Inculto habet hoc sub corpore*.'
Indeed, the common operations of dressing, shaving, &c., were
a toil to him ; he held the care of the body very cheap 2. He
used to say, that a man who rode out for an appetite consulted
but little the dignity of human nature.
He was much pleased with an Italian improvvisatore, whom he
saw at Streatham, and with whom he talked much in Latin.
He told him, if he had not been a witness to his faculty himself,
he should not have thought it possible. He said, Isaac Hawkins
Browne3 had endeavoured at it in English, but could not get
beyond thirty verses.
When a Scotsman was one day talking to him of the great
writers of that country that were then existing, he said : * We
have taught that nation to write 4, and do they pretend to be our
teachers ? let me hear no more of the tinsel of Robertson, and
the foppery of Dalrymple V He said, Hume has taken his style
from Voltaire6. He would never hear Hume mentioned with
any temper: — 'A man,' said he, 'who endeavoured to persuade
his friend who had the stone to shoot himself7.'
1 Ante, i. 458; Life, iv. 180. rymple.' Life, ii. 236.
2 Ante, i. 241 ; Life, i. 396 ; ii. 406. 6 'When I talked of our advance-
3 Ante, i. 266. ment in literature, " Sir, (said he,)
4 Dr. Beattie wrote on Jan. 5, you have learnt a little from us, and
1778: — 'We who live in Scotland you think yourselves very great men.
are obliged to study English from Hume would never have written
books, like a dead language, which History, had not Voltaire written it
we understand, but cannot speak.' before him. He is an echo of Vol-
He adds : — ' I have spent some years taire." ' Ib. ii. 53.
in labouring to acquire the art of Wordsworth said : — 'the Scotch hi s-
giving a vernacular cast to the Eng- torians did infinite mischief to style,
lish we write.' Forbes's Beattie, with the exception of Smollett, who
P- 243. wrote good pure English.' Words-
5 * Doubtless Goldsmith's His- worth's Life, ii. 459. See Life, i. 439,
tory is better than the verbiage of for Hume's style.
Robertson or the foppery of Dal- 7 Seven years after Hume's death
Upon
Opinions, and Occasional Reflections. n
Upon hearing a lady of his acquaintance commended for her
learning, he said : — * A man is in general better pleased when he
has a good dinner upon his table, than when his wife talks Greek.
My old friend, Mrs. Carter x, said he, could make a pudding, as
well as translate Epictetus from the Greek, and work a handker
chief as well as compose a poem.' He thought she was too
reserved in conversation upon subjects she was so eminently able
to converse upon, which was occasioned by her modesty and fear
of giving offence2.
Being asked whether he had read Mrs. Macaulay's second
volume of the History of England ; — ' No, Sir,' says he, 'nor her
' a work was published in London
called Essays on Suicide and the
Immortality of the Sou/, ascribed to
the late David Hume, Esq. That
Hume wrote these Essays, and in
tended to publish them, is an inci
dent in his life which ought not to
be passed over; but it is also part
of his history that he repented of
the act at the last available mo
ment, and suppressed the publication.'
J. H. Burton's Hume, ii. 13. See
also Letters of Hume to Strahan,
pp. 230-3, 355, 362. The work was
published not seven years, but one
year after his death. In the Essay
on Suicide he says : — ' Let us here
endeavour to restore men to their
native liberty by examining all the
common arguments against suicide,
and shewing that that action may
be free from every imputation
of guilt or blame, according to the
sentiments of all the ancient phi
losophers.' Ed. 1777, p. 5. On
p. 15 he says :— ' When the horror of
pain prevails over the love of life ;
when a voluntary action anticipates
the effects of blind causes, 'tis only
in consequence of those powers and
principles which he [the supreme
creator] has implanted in his
creatures.'
I cannot find any account of his
endeavouring to persuade his friend
to shoot himself. Perhaps it was as
sumed that the Essay was written for
some one man.
1 Life, i. 122, n. 4. * Dr. Johnson
maintained to me, contrary to the
common notion, that a woman would
not be the worse wife for being
learned.' Ib. ii. 76. See also ib. v.
226.
* It is, indeed, an unhappy circum
stance in a family, where the wife
has more knowledge than the hus
band ; but it is better it should be
so than that there should be no know
ledge in the whole house.' Addison's
Works, ed. 1864, iv. 319. ' If I
had a daughter,' wrote Lord Chester
field, ' I would give her as much
learning as a boy.' Chesterfield's
Letters to A. C. Stanhope, ed. 1817,
p. 151.
2 She is, no doubt, the Lady meant
in the following passage in Sir
Charles Grandison (ed. 1754, i. 63),
where Miss Byron says : — ' Who, I,
a woman know anything of Latin and
Greek ! I know but one Lady who
is mistress of both ; and she finds
herself so much an owl among the
birds, that she wants of all things
to be thought to have unlearned
them.'
first
12
Apophthegms, Sentiments
first neither1.' He would not be introduced to the Abbe
Raynal, when he was in England 2.
He said, that when he first conversed with Mr. Bruce, the
Abyssinian traveller, he was very much inclined to believe he
had been there ; but that he had afterwards altered his opinion 3.
He was much pleased with Dr. Jortin's Sermons, the language
of which he thought very elegant 4 ; but thought his life of
Erasmus a dull book.
He was very well acquainted with Psalmanaazar, the pretended
Formosan, and said, he had never seen the close of the life of
any one that he wished so much his own to resemble, as that
of him, for its purity and devotion. He told many anecdotes of
him; and said he was supposed by his accent to have been
a Gascon. He said, that Psalmanaazar spoke English with the
city accent, and coarsely enough. He for some years spent his
evenings at a publick house near Old-Street 5, where many
persons went to talk with him ; Johnson was asked whether he
ever contradicted Psalmanaazar ; — ' I should as soon,' said he,
'have thought of contradicting a bishop6;' so high did he hold
1 Of her he said : — < She is better
employed at her toilet, than using
her pen. It is better she should be
reddening her own cheeks, than
blackening other people's characters.'
Life, iii. 46. In the Sale Catalogue of
his Library, Lot 68 is ' Macaulay's
History of England, 2 v. 1763-5.'
2 Mrs. Chapone wrote to Mrs.
Carter on June 15, 1777 :— ' I sup
pose you have heard a great deal of
the Abbe' Raynal, who is in London.
I fancy you would have served him
as Dr. Johnson did, to whom when
Mrs. Vesey introduced him, he turned
from him, and said he had read his
book, and would have nothing to say
to him.' Mrs. Chapone's Posthumous
Works, i. 172. His book was burnt
by the common hangman in Paris.
C<tf\y\&s French Revolution,^. 1857,
i. 45. Carlyle wrote to his future
wife in 1824 :— ' If you are for fiery-
spirited men, I recommend you to
the Abbe* Raynal, whose History, at
least the edition of 1781, is, to use
the words of my tailor respecting
Africa, " wan coll (one coal) of burn
ing sulphur." ' Early Letters of T.
Carlyle, ii. 268. See ante, i. 211.
3 Ante, i. 365, n. I ; Life, ii. 333 ;
Letters, i. 313, n. i.
Southey, reviewing Lord Valen-
tia's Travels, agreed with his lord
ship in questioning Bruce's state
ments. * I think Lord Valentia is
rather unfair to Bruce ; (wrote Scott)
I know that surly Patagonian.' He
adds that he must have been in
Abyssinia. Letters of Sir Walter
Scott, Boston, U.S.A. i. 148.
4 Life, iii. 248 ; iv. 161 ; Letters,
ii. 276, n. i.
5 Life, iv. 187.
6 Ib. iv. 274. See id. iii. 443-9 for my
note on Psalmanazar, and ante, i. 266.
his
Opinions, and Occasional Reflections. 13
his character in the latter part of his life. When he was asked
whether he had ever mentioned Formosa before him, he said, he
was afraid to mention even China.
He thought Cato the best model of tragedy we had z ; yet he
used to say, of all things, the most ridiculous would be, to see
a girl cry at the representation of it 2.
He thought the happiest life was that of a man of business,
with some literary pursuits for his amusement ; and that in
general no one could be virtuous or happy, that was not com
pletely employed 3.
Johnson had read much in the works of Bishop Taylor ; in his
Dutch Thomas a Kempis he has quoted him occasionally in the
margin 4.
1 See ante, i. 185, for Johnson's
random talk about authors, and Life,
i. 199, n. 2, and Works, vii. 456, for
his criticism of Cato in his Life of
Addison. In the Preface to his
Shakespeare he says (ed. 1765, p.
35) : — ' Voltaire expresses his wonder
that our authour's extravagancies are
endured by a nation which has seen
the tragedy of Cato. Let him be
answered, that Addison speaks the
language of poets and Shakespeare
of men. We find in Cato innumerable
beauties which enamour us of its
authour, but we see nothing that
acquaints us with human sentiments
or human actions. . . . We pronounce
the name of Cato, but we think on
Addison.'
' I have always thought that those
pompous Roman sentiments are not
so difficult to be produced, as is
vulgarly imagined. A stroke of nature
is worth a hundred such thoughts as
"When vice prevails, and impious
men bear sway,
The post of honour is a private
station."
Cato is a fine dialogue on liberty and
the love of one's country.' J. War-
ton's Essay on Pope, 2nd ed., i. 259 ;
Warton published this Essay four
teen years before Wordsworth was
born.
2 ' A lady observing to one of her
maid-servants, when she came in
from the play [Hannah More's Fatal
Falsehood}, that her eyes looked red,
as if she had been crying, the girl,
by way of apology, said, "Well,
Ma'am, if I did, it was no harm ; a
great many respectable people cried
too." ' H. More's Memoirs, i. 164.
3 ' That accurate judge of human
life, Dr. Johnson, has often been heard
by me to observe, that it was the
greatest misfortune which could be
fall a man to have been bred to no
profession, and pathetically to regret
that this misfortune was his own.'
More's Practical Piety, p. 313. See
Life, iii. 309. See ante, i. 238, n. 2,
and fast in S e ward's A necdotes.
4 ' In the latter part of his life, in
order to satisfy himself whether his
mental faculties were impaired, he
resolved that he would try to learn
a new language, and fixed upon the
Low Dutch, for that purpose, and
this he continued till he had read
about one half of Thomas a Kempis?
Life, iv. 21.
He
Apophthegms, Sentiments
He is said to have very frequently made sermons for clergy
men at a guinea a-piece z ; that delivered by Dr. Dodd, in the
chapel of Newgate, was written by him, as was also his Defence,
spoken at the bar of the Old Bailey 2.
Of a certain lady's entertainments, he said, — What signifies
going thither ? there is neither meat, drink, nor talk 3.
He advised Mrs. Siddons to play the part of Queen Catherine
in Henry VIII. 4 and said of her, that she appeared to him to be
one of the few persons that the great corruptors of mankind,
money and reputation, had not spoiled s.
He had a great opinion of the knowledge procured by
1 'Johnson was never greedy of
money, but without money could not
be stimulated to write. I have been
told by a clergyman with whom he
had been long acquainted, that, being
to preach on a particular occasion,
he applied to him for help. " I will
write a sermon for thee," said John
son, " but thou must pay me for it." '
Hawkins, p. 84. See ante, i. 82, and
Life, v. 67.
2 Ib. iii. 141 ; ante, i. 432.
3 ' I advised Mrs. Thrale, who has
no card-parties at her house, to give
sweet-meats, and such good things,
in an evening, as are not commonly
given, and she would find company
fcnough come to her ; for every body
loves to have things which please the
palate put in their way, without
trouble or preparation.'. Life, iii. 186.
4 ' He asked her which of Shake
speare's characters she was most
pleased with. Upon her answering
that she thought the character of
Queen Catherine in Henry the Eighth
the most natural : — " I think so too,
Madam, (said he,) and whenever you
perform it I will once more hobble
out to the theatre myself." ' Ib. iv.
242.
'The meek sorrows and virtuous
distress of Catherine have furnished
some scenes which may be justly
numbered among the greatest efforts
of tragedy. But the genius of Shake
speare [in Henry VIII} comes in and
goes out with Catherine. Every other
part may be easily conceived and
easily written.' Johnson's Shake
speare, ed. 1765, v. 491. Of the
second scene of the fourth act he
writes : ' This scene is above any
other part of Shakespeare's tragedies,
and perhaps above any scene of any
other poet, tender and pathetick,
without gods, or furies, or poisons, or
precipices, without the help of ro-
mantick circumstances, without im
probable sallies of poetical lamenta
tion, and without any throes of
tumultuous misery.' Ib. p. 462. The
piety of the sentiments perhaps in
fluenced his judgement.
5 He wrote of Mrs. Siddons to
Mrs. Thrale : — ' Neither praise nor
money, the two powerful corrupters
of mankind, seem to have depraved
her.' Letters, ii. 345. ' Being asked
if he could not wish to compose a
part in a new tragedy to display her
powers, he replied, "Mrs. Siddons
excels in the pathetic, for which I
have no talent." Then says his
friend, " Imperial tragedy must be
long to you " (alluding to his Irene).
Johnson smiled.' Gentleman's Maga
zine, 1785, p. 86.
conversation
Opinions, and Occasional Reflections. 15
conversation with intelligent and ingenious persons1. His first
question concerning such as had that character, was ever, What
is his conversation 2 ?
Johnson said of the Chattertonian controversy, — It is a sword
that cuts both ways. It is as wonderful to suppose that a boy of
sixteen years old had stored his mind with such a train of
images and ideas as he had acquired, as to suppose the poems,
with their ease of versification and elegance of language, to have
been written by Rowlie in the time of Edward the Fourth 3.
Talking with some persons about allegorical painting, he said,
1 1 had rather see the portrait of a dog that I know, than all the
allegorical paintings they can shew me in the world V
When a Scotsman was talking against Warburton 5, Johnson
said he had more literature than had been imported from
Scotland since the days of Buchanan. Upon his mentioning
other eminent writers of the Scots, — ' These will not do,' said
Johnson, * let us have some more of your northern lights, these
are mere farthing candles V
A Scotsman upon his introduction to Johnson said : — ' I am
afraid, Sir, you will not like me, I have the misfortune to come
from Scotland.' ' Sir,' answered he, * that is a misfortune ; but
such a one as you and the rest of your countrymen cannot help V
1 Life, ii. 361 ; iii. 22. On this saying Mr. Pattison re-
2 Ib. iv. 19. marks:— * A modest admission, yet
3 ' Johnson said of Chatterton, strictly true, even understood of bare
"This is the most extraordinary quantity. But Johnson was not
young man that has encountered my thinking of volumes by number. He
knowledge. It is wonderful how the knew that Warburton's readings
whelp has written such things." ' ranged over whole classes of books
Ib. iii. 51. into which he himself had barely
4 For his feelings towards art see dipped.' Mark Pattison's Essays,
ib. i. 363, n. 3, and ante, i. 214. ed. 1889, ii. 122. On p. 131 Pattison
5 Fielding, addressing Learning, says that Bishop Newton, in his
says : — ' Give me a while that key to parallel between Jortin and War-
all thy treasures which to thy War- burton, ' adds that Jortin " was per-
burton thou hast entrusted.' Tom haps the better Greek and Latin
Jones, Bk. xiii. ch. i. (Warburton scholar." "Better" implies corn-
was the nephew by marriage of parison. The fact was that Jortin
Fielding's patron, Allen.) Johnson was a scholar in every sense of the
told George III that 'he had not word; Warburton in none.'
read much compared with Dr. War- 6 Life, v. 57, 80.
burton.' Life, ii. 36. 7 The Scotsman was Boswell ; for
To
16 Apophthegms, Sentiments
To one who wished him to drink some wine and be jolly,
adding, — ; You know Sir, in vino veritas! ' Sir,' answered he,
' this is a good recommendation to a man who is apt to lie when
sober1/
When he was first introduced to General Paoli, he was much
struck with his reception of him ; he said he had very much the
air of a man who had been at the head of a nation : he was par
ticularly pleased with his manner of receiving a stranger at his
own house, and said it had dignity and affability joined together2.
Johnson said, he had once seen Mr. Stanhope, Lord Chester
field's son. at Dodsley's shop, and was so much struck with his
awkward manners and appearance, that he could not help asking
Mr. Dodsley who he was 3.
Speaking one day of tea, he said, — What a delightful beverage
must that be, that pleases all palates, at a time when they can
take nothing else at breakfast 4 1
To his censure of fear in general, he made however one
exception, with respect to the fear of death, timorum maximus ;
he thought that the best of us were but unprofitable servants,
and had much reason to fear 5.
Johnson thought very well of Lord Kames's Elements of
Criticism ; of other of his writings he thought very indifferently,
and laughed much at his opinion, that war was a good thing
occasionally, as so much valour and virtue were exhibited in it 6.
A fire, says Johnson, might as well be thought a good thing ;
there is the bravery and address of the firemen employed in
what was really said see Life, i. 392, rosity and disinterestedness, which
and ante, i. 427. are always attended with conscious-
1 Ante, i. 321 ; Life, ii. 188. ness of merit and dignity.' Sketches
2 ' General Paoli (he said) had the of the History of Man, ed. 1819, ii.
loftiest port of any man he had ever 74. Tennyson, when he wrote Maud,
seen.' Ib. ii. 82. thought with him. For Johnson's
3 Ib. iv. 333. See my Introduction estimate of The Elements of Criti-
(p. 43) to the Worldly Wisdom of cism see Life, i. 393 ; ii. 89. ' Adam
Lord Chesterfield. Smith, on being complimented on
4 Ante, i. 414. the group of great writers who were
5 Ante, i. 330, 445 ; Life, iv. 299. then reflecting glory on Scotland,
6 Kames, speaking of the 'less said, "Yes, but we must every one
savage aspect ' of modern wars, of us acknowledge Kames for our
says :—' Such wars give exercise to master."' Life of Adam Smith by
the elevated virtues of courage, gene- John Rae, p. 31.
extinguishing
Opinions, and Occasional Reflections. 17
extinguishing it ; there is much humanity exerted in saving the
lives and properties of the poor sufferers ; yet, says he, after all
this, who can say a fire is a good thing ?
Speaking of schoolmasters, he used to say, they were worse
than the Egyptian task-masters of old. No boy, says he, is
sure any day he goes to school to escape a whipping : how can
the schoolmaster tell what the boy has really forgotten, and
what he has neglected to learn ; what he has had no oppor
tunities of learning, and what he has taken no pains to get
at the knowledge of? yet for any of these, however difficult
they may be, the boy is obnoxious to punishment x.
He used to say something tantamount to this : When a woman
affects learning, she makes a rivalry between the two sexes for
the same accomplishments, which ought not to be, their provinces
being different 2. Milton said before him,
' For contemplation he and valour form'd,
For softness she and sweet attractive grace3.'
He used to say, that in all family-disputes the odds were in
favour of the husband, from his superior knowledge of life and
manners: he was, nevertheless, extremely fond of the company
and conversation of women, and was early in life much attached
to a most beautiful woman at Lichfield, of a rank superior to
his own 4.
He never suffered any one to swear before him. When
, a libertine, but a man of some note, was talking before
him, and interlarding his stories with oaths, Johnson said,
' Sir, all this swearing will do nothing for our story, I beg you
will not swear.' The narrator went on swearing: Johnson said,
* I must again intreat you not to swear.' He swore again :
Johnson quitted the room 5.
1 For the brutality of schoolmasters not the learning itself.
of old see Life, i. 44, n. 2 ; ii. 144, n. 2 ; 3 Paradise Lost, iv. 297.
146,157. ' There is now less flogging 4 Molly Aston. Ante, i. 255.
in our great schools than formerly, 5 * Davies reminded Dr. Johnson of
but then less is learned there ; so Mr. Murphy's having paid him the
that what the boys get at one end highest compliment that ever was
they lose at the other.' Life, ii. 407. paid to a layman, by asking his par-
2 Ante, ii. n. It was the affecta- don for repeating some oaths in the
tion of learning that he disliked, course of telling a story.' Life, iii.4O.
VOL. ii. c He
i8
Apophthegms, Sentiments
He was no great friend to puns, though he once by accident
made a singular one. A person who affected to live after the
Greek manner, and to anoint himself with oil, was one day
mentioned before him. Johnson, in the course of conversation
on the singularity of his practice, gave him the denomination of,
This man of Greece, or grease, as you please to take it x.
Of a member of parliament, who, after having harangued for
some hours in the house of commons, came into a company
where Johnson was, and endeavoured to talk him down, he said,
This man has a pulse in his tongue.
He was not displeased with a kind of pun made by a person,
who (after having been tired to death by two ladies who talked
' Obscenity and impiety (he said)
have always been repressed in my
company/ Life, iv. 295. See also
ib. iii. 189.
Susan Burney, sending her sister
a report of a conversation at Streat-
ham when Johnson was present, re
ports Mrs. Thrale as crying out : —
' Good G-d ! why somebody else
mentioned that book to me.' Mrs.
Raine Ellis, who has edited Fanny
Burney's Early Diary with great
skill, says in a footnote: — ' The care
less old ejaculations have, in almost
every case, been modified, or effaced
in the manuscripts of the diaries, old
and new; in many cases by Mme.
D'Arblay herself, in more by her
niece, who was the editor of her
later diaries. These almost unmean
ing expletives seem to have passed
unrebuked by Dr. Johnson in the
case of Mrs. Thrale, although he
would not suffer Boswell to write
"by my soul." [« My illustrious
friend said, " It is very well, Sir ; but
you should not swear." ' Life, ii.
in.] His ear had become used to
them, or she was incorrigible.' Early
Diary of F. Burney r, ii. 234.
1 'Johnson had a great contempt
for that species of wit.' Life, ii. 241.
Boswell, recording a pun by John
son, says:— 'It was the first time
that I knew him stoop to such sport.'
Ib. iii. 325. In his Dictionary, he
defines punster as a low wit, who
endeavours at reputation by double
meaning.
Dryden, after quoting Horace's
pun on ' Mr. King' (Satires, i. 7. 35),
continues : — ' But it may be puns
were then in fashion, as they were
wit in the sermons of the last age
and in the Court of King Charles II.'
Scott's Dryden 's Works, xiii. 97.
' A great Critic formerly held these
clenches in such abhorrence that he
declared " he that would pun would
pick a pocket." Yet Mr. Dennis's
works afford us notable examples in
this kind.' The Dunciad, 2nd ed. i.
6i,». Shaftesbury wrote in 1714: —
'All Humour had something of the
Quibble. The very Language of the
Court was Punning. But 'tis now
banish'd the Town and all Good
Company. There are only some few
Footsteps of it in the Country ; and it
seems at last confin'd to the Nurserys
of Youth, as the chief Entertain
ment of Pedants and their Pupils.'
Char act eri sticks, ed. 1714, i. 64.
* I never knew an enemy to puns
who was not an ill-natured man.'
Lamb's Letters, ed. 1888, ii. 148.
of
Opinions, and Occasional Reflections. 19
of the antiquity and illustriousness of their families, himself being
quite a new man) cried out, with the ghost in Hamlet,
' This eternal blazon
Must not be to ears of flesh and blood1.'
One who had long known Johnson, said of him, In general you
may tell what the man to whom you are speaking will say next :
this you can never do of Johnson : his images, his allusions, his
great powers of ridicule throw the appearance of novelty upon
the most common conversation 2.
He was extremely fond of Dr. Hammond's Works 3, and some
times gave them as a present to young men going into orders :
he also bought them for the library at Streatham.
1 Whoever thinks of going to bed before twelve o'clock, said
Johnson, is a scoundrel : — having nothing in particular to do
himself, and having none of his time appropriated, he was
a troublesome guest to persons who had much to do 4.
He rose as unwillingly as he went to bed s.
He said, he was always hurt when he found himself ignorant
of any thing 6.
He was extremely accurate in his computation of time 7. He
could tell how many heroick Latin verses could be repeated in
such a given portion of it ; and was anxious that his friends
should take pains to form in their minds some measure for
estimating the lapse of it.
Of authors he used to say, that as they think themselves wiser
or wittier than the rest of the world, the world, after all, must
be the judge of their pretensions to superiority over them 8.
1 Hamlet, Act i. sc. 5. 1. 21. nothing so minute or inconsiderable,
2 W. G. Hamilton said of him : — that I would not rather know it than
* He has made a chasm which not not." ' Life, ii. 357. Reynolds wrote
only nothing can fill up, but which of him : — ' He sometimes, it must be
nothing has a tendency to fill up. confessed, covered his ignorance by
Johnson is dead. Let us go to the generals rather than appear ignorant.5
next best : — there is nobody ; no Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 457.
man can be said to put you in mind 7 Life, i. 72.
of Johnson.' Life, iv. 420. 8 * He had indeed, upon all occa-
3 Ante, i. 107, and Life, iii. 58. sions, a great deference for the
4 Ante, i. 231. 5 Ante, i. 340. general opinion : "A man (said he)
6 ' He observed, " All knowledge who writes a book, thinks himself
is of itself of some value. There is wiser or wittier than the rest of man-
C 2 Complainers
20 Apophthegms, Sentiments, Opinions, &c.
Complainers, said he, are always loud and clamorous x.
He thought highly of Mandeville's Treatise on the Hypochron-
driacal Disease 2.
He would not allow the verb derange, a word at present much
in use, to be an English word. Sir, said a gentleman who had
some pretensions to literature, I have seen it in a book. Not in
a bound book, said Johnson ; disarrange is the word we ought to
use instead of it 3.
He thought very favourably of the profession of the law 4, and
said, that the sages thereof, for a long series backward, had
been friends to religion. Fortescue says, that their afternoon's
employment was the study* of the Scriptures 5.
kind ; he supposes that he can in
struct or amuse them, and the pub-
lick to whom he appeals must, after
all, be the judges of his pretensions.'
Life, i. 200. See ante, ii. 7.
1 Ante, i. 315.
2 Treatise of Hypochondriack and
Hysterick Passions, vulgarly called
Hypo in Men, and Vapours in
Women, 1711.
Of Mandeville's Fable of the Bees
he said :— ' I read Mandeville forty,
or I believe, fifty years ago. He did
not puzzle me ; he opened my views
into life very much.' Life, iii. 292.
See also Hawkins' s Johnson, p. 263.
3 Neither derange nor disarrange
is in Johnson's Dictionary. Of de
range he might have said that it was
a word ' lately innovated from
France without necessity.' Life,
iii. 343-
In a note on ' the wide arch of the
rang'd empire,' in Antony and Cleo
patra, Act i. sc. i, he says : — * It is
not easy to guess how Dr. Warbur-
ton missed this opportunity of in
serting a French word by reading —
" And the wide arch
Of derang'd empire fall ! " —
Which, \iderange4wtt an English
word, would be preferable both to
raised and. ranged? Johnson's Shake
speare, ed. 1765, vii. 107.
4 Attorneys apparently he did not
include in the profession of the law.
Life, ii. 126. He had himself wished
to become a lawyer. ' Sir (he said)
it would have been better that I had
been of a profession. I ought to
have been a lawyer.' Ib. iii. 309.
See ib. i. 134, for his wish to practise
in Doctors' Commons.
5 * Quare Justiciarii, postquam se
refecerint, totum Diei residuum per-
transeunt studendo in Legibus, sa-
cram legendo Scripturam, et aliter
ad eorum Libitum contemplando, ut
Vita ipsorum plus contemplativa vi-
deatur quam activa. Sicque quietam
illi Vitam agunt ab omni Sollici-
tudine et Mundi Turbinibus semo-
tam.' Fortescue, De Laudibus, cap.
Ii.
'When a lawyer, a warm partisan
of Lord Chancellor Eldon, called
him one of the pillars of the Church ;
" No," said another lawyer, " he may
be one of its buttresses ; but certain
ly not one of its pillars, for he is
never found within it." ' Twiss's
Life of Eldon, ed. 1844, iii. 488.
EXTRACTS
FROM JAMES BOSWELLS LETTERS
TO EDMOND MA LONE1
DEC. 4. 1790. Let me begin with myself. On the day after
your departure, that most friendly fellow Courtenay 2 (begging
the pardon of an M.P. for so free an epithet) called on me,
and took my word and honour that, till the ist of March, my
allowance of wine per diem should not exceed four good glasses
at dinner, and a pint after it 3 : and this I have kept, though
I have dined with Jack Wilkes 4 ; at the London Tavern, after
the launch of an Indiaman ; with dear Edwards ; Dilly 5 ; at
home with Courtenay ; Dr. Barrow 6 ; at the mess of the Cold-
1 Published in Croker's Boswell,
x. 209, from the MSS. in Mr. Upcott's
collection.
2 John Courtenay. In the new
Parliament which met on Nov. 25 he
sat for Tamworth. For his Moral
and Literary Character of Dr. John
son see Life, i. 222.
3 ' Under the solemn yew,' fifteen
years earlier, he had promised his
friend Temple not to exceed a bottle
of old Hock a day. The following
year he wrote : — ' General Paoli has
taken my word of honour that I shall
not taste fermented liquor for a year.'
Life, ii. 436, n. I.
4 Boswell complacently recorded
in his Journal : — ' When Wilkes and
I sat together, each glass of wine
produced a flash of wit, like gun
powder thrown into the fire. Puff !
puff ! ' Rogers's Boswelliana, p. 322.
5 Charles Dilly, Boswell's pub
lisher, at whose house * Johnson
owned that he always found a good
dinner.' Life, iii. 285.
6 Boswell wrote to Temple on
Nov. 28, 1789 : — ' My second son is
an extraordinary boy ; he is much of
his father (vanity of vanities). . . .
He is still in the house with me ;
indeed he is quite my companion,
though only eleven in September.
He goes in the day to the academy
in Soho Square, kept by the Rev.
Dr. Barrow, formerly of Queen's,
Oxford, a coarse north-countryman,
but a very good scholar.' Letters of
Boswell, p. 315.
Barrow wrote to John James on
Jan. 26, 1786:— 'The reviews and
papers will tell you better than I can,
that the booksellers are engaged in
a contest who shall publish the first
stream ;
22 Extracts from James Boswell's Letters
stream x ; at the Club ; at Warren Hastings's 2 ; at Hawkins
the Cornish member's 3 ; and at home with a colonel of the
guards, &c. This regulation I assure you is of essential
advantage in many respects. The Magnum Opus advances.
I have revised p. 2i64. The additions which I have received
are a Spanish quotation from Mr. Cambridge 5 ; an account of
Johnson at Warley Camp from Mr. Langton 6 ; and Johnson's
letters to Mr. Hastings — three in all7 — one of them long and
admirable; but what sets the diamonds in pure gold of Ophir
is a letter from Mr. Hastings to me, illustrating them and
their writer. I had this day the honour of a long visit from
the late governor-general of India. There is to be no more
impeachment8. But you will see his character nobly vindicated9.
Depend upon this.
and best edition of Johnson's Dic
tionary, and that his friends are
running a race who shall be foremost
in giving, or rather selling, to the
world some scrap or fragment of our
literary Leviathan — an anecdote, a
letter, or a character, a sermon, a
prayer, or a bon-mot.' Letters of
Radcliffe and James, p. 266. * I do
not quite affect John's friend Barrow,'
wrote J. Boucher ; ' he seems too
rough and rugged a northern. He
would overawe me.' Ib. p. 267.
1 The Coldstream Guards. Bos-
well nearly thirty years earlier had
described his 'fondness for the
Guards.' Life, i. 400.
2 For Hastings's letter to Bos well
dated the 2nd of this month see ib.
iv. 66.
3 Sir Christopher Hawkins, mem
ber for Michell. W. P. Courtney's
Parl. Repres. of Cornwall, p. 319.
4 Of the second volume.
5 Life, iii. 25 1. In another passage
(ib. iv. 195) Boswell records a con
versation between Cambridge and
Johnson about a Spanish translation
of Sallust. Dr. Franklin wrote to
W. Strahan from Passy, on Dec. 4,
1781 : — 'A strong Emulation exists
at present between Paris and Madrid
with regard to beautiful Printing.
Here a M. Didot 1'aine has a Passion
for the Art, and besides having pro
cured the best Types, he has much
improv'd the Press. The utmost
Care is taken of his Press-work ; his
Ink is black, and his Paper fine and
white. He has executed several
charming Editions. But the Salust
[sic] and the Don Quixote of Madrid
are thought to excel them.'
6 Life, iii. 360.
1 Ib. iv. 68.
8 BoswelPs hope was from the new
Parliament. ' The friends of Hastings
entertained a hope that the new
House of Commons might not be
disposed to go on with the impeach
ment.' Macaulay's Essays, ed. 1843,
iii. 455. Their hope was disappointed.
Dr. Burney wrote to his daughter on
May 7, 1795:— 'And so dear Mr.
Hastings is honourably acquitted ;
and I visited him the next morning,
and we cordially shook hands.'
Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, vi. 36.
9 In the Life of Johnson, that is to
say. See Life, iv. 66.
And
to Edmond Malone.
And now for my friend. The appearance of Malone's Shake
speare on the 29th November was not attended with any
external noise ; but I suppose no publication seized more
speedily and surely on the attention of those for whose critical
taste it was chiefly intended r. At the Club on Tuesday, where
I met Sir Joshua, Dr. Warren, Lord Ossory2, Lord Palmerston 3,
Windham, and Burke in the chair, — Burke was so full of his
anti-French revolution rage, and poured it out so copiously,
that we had almost nothing else4. He, however, found time
1 It was published in ten volumes ;
' in fifteen months a large edition was
nearly sold.' Unfortunately the type
and paper were bad. Prior's Malone,
p. 168.
Horace Walpole describes it as
' the heaviest of all books, in ten
thick octavos, with notes that are an
extract of all the opium that is
spread through the works of all the
bad play-wrights of that age : — mercy
on the poor gentleman's patience.'
Letters, ix. 326.
2 It was to Lord Ossory's wife that
Horace Walpole wrote so many of
his letters. In a note to the letter of
Feb. i, 1779 (vii. 169), the following
quotation is given from Lord Ossory's
Memoranda : — 'In Italy I became
acquainted with Garrick, and from
my earliest youth having admired
him on the stage, was happy to be
familiarly acquainted with him, culti
vated his society from that time till
his death, and then accompanied
him to his grave as one of his pall
bearers. He and Mrs. Garrick (I
think it was in 1777) have been with
us in the country; Gibbon and
Reynolds at the same time, all three
delightful in society. The vivacity
of the great actor, the keen sarcastic
wit of the great historian, and the
genuine pleasantry of the great
painter, mixed up well together, and
made a charming party. Garrick's
mimicry of the mighty Johnson was
excellent.'
Reynolds, by his will, left Lord
Ossory the first choice of any picture
of his own painting. Taylor's Rey
nolds, ii. 636.
3 Lord Palmerston, the father of
the Prime Minister, when proposed
at the Club in 1783 was, writes
Johnson, * against my opinion re
jected.' Life, iv. 232. He was elected
a few months later.
4 Burke, acknowledging Malone's
gift of his Shakespeare, sent him his
Reflections on the Revolution in
France. ' You have sent me gold,'
he wrote, ' which I can only repay
you in my brass.' Prior's Malone,
p. 170.
Horace Walpole wrote of Burke's
book (Letters, ix. 268) : — ' Every page
shows how sincerely he is in earnest
— a wondrous merit in a political
pamphlet. All other party writers
act zeal for the public, but it never
seems to flow from the heart.'
Burke told Malone, in Sept. 1791,
that 18,000 copies had been sold, and
12,000 in Paris of the French trans
lation. Prior's Malone, p. 183.
Bennet Langton told H. D. Best
that ' Burke was rude and violent in
dispute ; instancing, " if any one as
serted that the United States were
in the wrong in their quarrel with
the mother country, or that England
to
24
Extracts from James Boswell's Letters
to praise the clearness and accuracy of your dramatic history ;
and Windham found fault with you for not taking the profits
of so laborious a work. Sir Joshua is pleased, though he
would gladly have seen more disquisition — you understand me !
Mr. Daines Barrington J is exceedingly gratified. He regrets
that there should be a dryness between you and Steevens 2, as
you have treated him with great respect. I understand that,
in a short time, there will not be one of your books to be had
for love or money.
Dec. 7. I dined last Saturday at Sir Joshua's with Mr. Burke,
his lady, son, and niece, Lord Palmerston, Windham, Dr.
Lawrence 3, Dr. Blagden 4, Dr. Burney, Sir Abraham Hume,
Sir William Scott 5. I sat next to young Burke at dinner,
had a right to tax America, Burke,
instead of answering his arguments,
would, if seated next to him, turn
away in such a manner as to throw
the end of his own tail into the face
of the arguer."' Personal and
Literary Memorials, p. 63. Burke
no doubt wore his hair tied up in a
pig-tail.
1 Barrington was not a member of
the Literary Club. He had belonged
to Johnson's Essex Head Club. Life,
iv. 254.
2 Steevens, five years earlier, had
taken offence at some notes on
Shakespeare which Malone furnished
to Isaac Reid. Prior's Malone, p. 122.
Malone wrote to Lord Charlemont
on Nov. 15, 1793, about Steevens's
last edition of Shakespeare : — * In
my new edition I mean to throw
down the gauntlet, not by the hints
and hesitations of oblique deprecia
tion, as he has on all occasions served
me in his late book, but by a fair and
direct attack.' Hist. MSS. Com.,
Thirteenth Report, App. viii. 221.
3 Not Johnson's friend, the physi
cian, who had been dead some
years, but Dr. French Lawrence, the
Civilian, whose correspondence with
Burke was published in 1827.
4 'Talking of Dr. Blagden's co
piousness and precision of communi
cation, Dr. Johnson said: — "Blagden,
Sir, is a delightful fellow." ' Life, iv.
30. Charlotte Burney describes him
at a Twelfth Night Ball in 1784 as
' too elegant to undergo the fatigue
of dancing.' Early Diary of F.
Burney, ii. 316. Hannah More
{Memoirs, ii. 98) met him at Mrs.
Montagu's in 1788: — 'He is (she
wrote) a new blue-stocking and a
very agreeable one. He is Secretary
to the Royal Society.' Later on he
became Sir Charles Blagden.
5 To many of these guests Sir
Joshua, who died on Feb. 23, 1792,
left bequests — to Burke, ^2000, with
the cancelling of a bond for the same
amount borrowed ; to young Burke,
a miniature of Oliver Cromwell ; to
Lord Palmerston, the second choice
of any picture of his own painting ;
to Sir Abraham Hume, the choice of
his Claude Lorraines ; and to Boswell
^200 to be expended in the purchase
of one of his pictures.
Malone too, and Burke, as executors,
who
to Edmond Malone. 25
who said to me, that you had paid his father a very fine
compliment \ I mentioned Johnson, to sound if there was any
objection. He made none. In the evening Burke told me he
had read your Henry VI., with all its accompaniment, and it
was exceedingly well done. He left us for some time ; I suppose
on some of his cursed politics ; but he returned — I at him again,
and heard from his lips what, believe me, I delighted to hear,
and took care to write down soon after. ' I have read his History
of the Stage, which is a very capital piece of criticism and
anti-agrarianism 2. I shall now read all Shakspeare through,
in a very different manner from what I have yet done, when
I have got such a commentator.' Will not this do for you
my friend ? Burke was admirable company all that day. He
never once, I think, mentioned the French revolution 3, and was
easy with me, as in days of old*.
Dec. 1 6. I was sadly mortified at the Club on Tuesday,
where I was in the chair, and on opening the box found three
had each the same sum left for the 2 Bos well, I suppose, wrote anti-
same object. Taylor's Reynolds, ii. quarianism.
636. 3 Burke this day never 'thought
Sir William Scott was Dr. Scott of convincing, while they thought of
(Lord Stowell), who with Reynolds dining.'
and Hawkins had been Johnson's 4 In 1783 Boswell visited Burke
executor. He outlived this dinner at Beaconsfield. Life, iv. 210. A
forty-five years. few weeks later he wrote : — ' I men-
1 * At length the task of revising tioned my expectations from the
these plays was undertaken by interest of an eminent person then in
one [Johnson] whose extraordinary power ' (no doubt Burke). Ib. p. 223.
powers of mind, as they rendered On May 28, 1794, Malone wrote of
him the admiration of his contempo- the Club : — 'We are now so distracted
raries, will transmit his name to pos- by party there, in consequence of
terity as the brightest ornament of Windham and Burke, and I might
the eighteenth century ; and will add the whole nation, being on one
transmit it without competition, if we side, and Fox and his little phalanx
except a great orator, philosopher on the other, that we in general keep
and statesman x now living, whose as clear of politics as we can, and
talents and virtues are an honour to did so yesterday.' Hist. MSS.
human nature.' Malone's Shake- Com., Thirteenth Report, App. viii.
speare, ed. 1790, i. Preface, p. 68. 239.
1 The Right Honourable Edmund Burke. Note by Malone.
balls
26 Extracts from James BoswelVs Letters
balls against General Burgoyne1. Present, besides moi^ Lord
Ossory, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Sir Joseph Banks, Dr. Fordyce,
Dr. Burney, young Burke, Courtenay, Steevens. One of the
balls, I do believe, was put into the no side by Fordyce by
mistake2. You may guess who put in the other two. The
Bishop of Carlisle and Dr. Blagden are put up 3. I doubt if
the latter will be admitted, till Burgoyne gets in first 4. My
work has met with a delay for a little while — not a whole day,
however — by an unaccountable neglect in having paper enough
in readiness. I have now before me p. 256. My utmost wish
is to come forth on Shrove Tuesday (8th March) 5. ' Wits are
game cocks,' &c. Langton is in town, and dines with me
to-morrow quietly, and revises his Collectanea 6.
Jan. 1 8. 1791. I have been so disturbed by sad money-
matters, that my mind has been quite fretful : 5oo/. which I
1 For his defeat at Saratoga, see
Life, iii. 355. My friend, Mr. E. L.
Bigelow, of Maryborough, Mass.,
U.S.A., has Burgoyne's folio Greek
dictionary, one of the spoils of that
battle. Richard Tickell celebrates
his * manly sense.' Ib. iii. 388 n.
According to Horace Walpole 'he
had written the best modern comedy.'
Letters, ix. 96.
2 Dr. George Fordyce. For an anec
dote of his drinking see Life, ii. 274.
3 The Bishop (Dr. John Douglas,
* the detector of quacks ') was elected
on May 22, 1792 (he was at that
time Bishop of Salisbury), and Dr.
Blagden on March 18, 1794. Croker's
Boswell, ii. 327.
4 It was no easy matter to get into
the Club. ' When Bishops and Chan
cellors,' wrote William Jones in 1780,
' honour us by offering to dine with
us at a tavern, it seems very extra
ordinary that we should ever reject
such an offer.' Life of Sir W.Jones,
p. 240.
Malone wrote to Lord Charlemont
on April 5, 1779 : — ' I have lately
made two or three attempts to get
into your club, but have not yet been
able to succeed — though I have
some friends there — Johnson, Burke,
Steevens,Sir J. Reynolds and Marlay.
At first they said, I think, they
thought it a respect to Garrick's
memory [see Life, i. 481, n. 3] not
to elect any one for some time in
his room.' Hist. MS S. Com., Twelfth
Report, App. x. 344. He was elected
on Feb. 5, 1782. Croker's Bosivell,
ed. 1844, ii. 327.
'In the height of revolutionary
proceedings in France, Rogers, not
at all reserved in giving full swing
to Whig opinions of the day, came
forward as candidate for the Club,
and was black-balled. This he at
tributed to Malone.' Prior's Malone,
p. 204.
5 Reynolds wrote to Malone on
this day : — ' To-day is Shrove Tues
day, and no Johnson.' Prior's Malone,
p. 174.
6 Life, iv. I.
borrowed
to Edmond Malone. 27
borrowed and lent to a first cousin, an unlucky captain of an
Indiaman, were due on the I5th to a merchant in the city.
I could not possibly raise that sum, and was apprehensive of
being hardly used. He, however, indulged me with an allowance
to make partial payments ; i5o/. in two months, i$ol. in eight
months, and the remainder, with the interests, in eighteen
months. How I am to manage I am at a loss, and I know
you cannot help me. So this, upon my honour, is no hint.
I am really tempted to accept of the iooc/. for my Life of
Johnson. Yet it would go to my heart to sell it at a price
\ which I think much too low. Let me struggle and hope.
I cannot be out on Shrove Tuesday, as I flattered myself. P. 376.
] of Vol. II. is ordered for press, and I expect another proof
to-night. But I have yet near 200 pages of copy besides letters,
i and the death, which is not yet written. My second volume
\ will, I see, be forty or fifty pages more than my first. Your
absence is a woful want in all respects. You will, I dare say,
perceive a difference in the part which is revised only by myself,
and in which many insertions will appear. My spirits are at
present bad : but I will mention all I can recollect.
Jan. 29. 1791. You will find this a most desponding and
disagreeable letter, for whidi I ask your pardon. But your
vigour of mind and warmth of heart make your friendship of
such consequence, that it is drawn upon like a bank. I have,
for some weeks, had the most woful return of melancholy,
insomuch that I have not only had no relish of any thing, but
a continual uneasiness, and all the prospect before me for the
rest of life has seemed gloomy and hopeless. The state of my
affairs is exceedingly embarrassed. I mentioned to you that
the 5oo/. which I borrowed several years ago, and lent to a first
cousin, an unfortunate India captain, must now be paid ; i5o/.
on the 1 8th of March, i5o/. on the i8th of October, and
257^ I5S- &d. on the i8th of July, 1792. This debt presses
upon my mind, and it is uncertain if I shall ever get a shilling
of it again. The clear money on which I can reckon out of
my estate is scarcely 9OO/. a year. What can I do ? My grave
brother urges me to quit London, and live at my seat in the
country ;
28 Extracts from James Boswell's Letters
country; where he thinks that I might be able to save so as
gradually to relieve myself. But, alas ! I should be absolutely
miserable. In the mean time, such are my projects and sanguine
expectations, that you know I purchased an estate which was
given long ago to a younger son of our family, and came to
be sold last autumn, and paid for it 25007. — i$ool. of which
I borrow upon itself by a mortgage. But the remaining iooo/.
I cannot conceive a possibility of raising, but by the mode of
annuity ; which is, I believe, a very heavy disadvantage. I own
it was imprudent in me to make a clear purchase at a time
I was sadly straitened ; but if I had missed the opportunity,
it never again would have occurred, and I should have been
vexed to see an ancient appanage, a piece of, as it were, the
flesh and blood of the family, in the hands of a stranger. And
now that I have made the purchase, I should feel myself quite
despicable should I give it up.
f In this situation, then, my dear Sir, would it not be wise in
me to accept of iooo guineas for my Life of Johnson, supposing
the person who made the offer should now stand to it, which
I fear may not be the case ; for two volumes may be considered
as a disadvantageous circumstance ? Could I indeed raise iooo/.
' upon the credit of the work, I should incline to game, as Sir
Joshua says x ; because it may produce double the money, though
Steevens kindly tells me that I have over-printed, and that the
curiosity about Johnson is now only in our own circle 2. Pray
decide for me ; and if, as I suppose, you are for my taking
the offer, inform me with whom I am to treat. In my present
state of spirits, I am all timidity. Your absence has been
a severe stroke to me. I am at present quite at a loss what
to do. Last week they gave me six sheets3. I have now
before me in proof p. 456 4: yet I have above 100 pages of
my copy remaining, besides his death, which is yet to be written,
1 Perhaps gamble, a word not in 2 For Steevens's malignancy see
Johnson's Dictionary (where gam- Life, iii. 281.
bier, though given, is called ' a cant 3 48 pages, as the first edition was
word '), was in common use, and in quarto.
Reynolds was singular in sticking to 4 Vol. iii. p. 223 of my edition,
an old-fashioned word.
and
to Edmond Malone.
29
and many insertions, were there room, as also seven-and-thirty
letters, exclusive of twenty to Dr. Brocklesby, most of which
will furnish only extracts. I am advised to extract several of
those to others, and leave out some ; for my first volume makes
only 516 pages, and to have 600 in the second will seem
awkward, besides increasing the expense considerably z. The coun
sellor, indeed, has devised an ingenious way to thicken the first
volume, by prefixing the index. I have now desired to have but
one compositor. Indeed, I go sluggishly and comfortlessly about
my work. As I pass your door I cast many a longing look.
I am to cancel a leaf of the first volume, having found that
though Sir Joshua certainly assured me he had no objection
to my mentioning that Johnson wrote a dedication for him, he
now thinks otherwise. In that leaf occurs the mention of
Johnson having written to Dr. Leland, thanking the University
of Dublin for their diploma2. What shall I say as to it?
shall see afterwards accepted of the
same kind of assistance, well observed
to me, " Writing a dedication is a
knack. It is like writing an advertise
ment."
'In this art no man excelled Dr.
Johnson. Though the loftiness of
his mind prevented him from ever
dedicating in his own person, he
wrote a great number of Dedications
for others. After all the diligence I
have bestowed, some of them have
escaped my inquiries. He told me
he believed he had dedicated to all
the Royal Family round.'
Advertisement in the above passage
is not used in its modern sense. What
we should call the Prefaces to the
first and second edition of the Life,
Boswell calls the Advertisements.
For the Advertisements which John
son had intended for the English
Poets, see Life, iv. 35 n.
Percy, in later editions of the
Reliques, suppressed the Dedication.
He wrote to Dr. Anderson :— * Though
not wholly written by Dr. Johnson, it
owed its finest strokes to his pen, and
I have
1 It contained 588 pages.
2 The cancel came on vol. i. p. 272
of the first edition. In the second
edition a change was made in the
order of the paragraphs, by which
Dr. Leland and the Dedications were
separated by ten pages. In my
edition Dr. Leland is found on vol. i.
p. 489, and the Dedications on vol. ii.
p. I. By the kindness of my friend,
Mr. R. B. Adam, of Buffalo, who has
in his collection the proof-sheets of
the Life, with Boswell's autograph
corrections, I am able to give the
passage as it first stood. It ran as
follows: — 'He furnished his friend,
Dr. Percy, now Bishop of Dromore,
with a Dedication to the Countess of
Northumberland, which was prefixed
to his collection of " Reliques of
ancient English Poetry," in which
he pays compliments to that most
illustrious family in the most courtly
style. It should not be wondered at,
that one who can himself write so
well as Dr. Percy should accept of
a Dedication from Johnson's pen ;
for as Sir Joshua Reynolds, who we
30 Extracts from James Boswell's Letters
I have also room to state shortly the anecdote of the college
cook1, which I beg you may get for me. I shall be very
anxious till I hear from you.
Having harassed you with so much about myself, I have
left no room for any thing else. We had a numerous club
on Tuesday : Fox in the chair, quoting Homer and Fielding,
&c. to the astonishment of Jo. Warton 2 ; who, with Langton
and Seward, eat a plain bit with me, in my new house, last
Saturday. Sir Joshua has put up Dr. Lawrence, who will be
blackballed as sure as he exists 3.
We dined on Wednesday at Sir Joshua's ; thirteen without
Miss P.4 Himself, Blagden, Batt5, [Lawrence6,] Erskine7,
Langton, Dr. Warton, Metcalfe8, Dr. Lawrence, his brother,
a clergyman, Sir Charles Bunbury 9, myself.
I could not any longer allow myself
to strut in borrowed feathers.' Ander
son's Johnson, ed. 1815, p. 309.
1 This, no doubt, is explained by
the following correspondence between
Malone and Lord Charlemont. Ma-
lone wrote on Nov. 7, 1787 : — ' Dr.
Johnson very kindly wrote to some
man who was employed in the College
kitchen [Trinity College, Dublin] who
had a mind to breed his son a scholar,
and wrote to Johnson for advice.
Perhaps Dr. J. Kearney could recover
this/ Charlemont replied :— ' The
letter to an officer in the College
kitchen is well remembered, and
John Kearney has promised, if pos
sible, to find it, though he seems
almost to despair.' Two days later
he wrote : — ' The other letter is, I
fear, absolutely irrecoverable, as no
trace can be found of any papers be
longing to the College steward, who
has long since been dead.' Hist.
MSS. Com., Thirteenth Report, App.
viii. 62, 3, 5.
2 Why Warton should have been
astonished is not clear. He had been
a member of the Club for nearly
fourteen years, and so was likely to
have met Fox and learnt that he was
a scholar.
3 Dr. Lawrence was black-balled,
and did not become a member of the
Club till December, 1802. CHOKER.
4 Sir Joshua's niece, Miss Palmer.
For the dinners which he gave, see
Life, Hi. 375 n. ; iv. 312 n.
5 Thomas Batt, who in 1789 was
one of the Commissioners for audit
ing the Public Accounts. Walpole's
Letters, ix. 181 n.
When Miss Burney escaped from
her Court servitude she met him at
a party. ' " How I rejoice," he cried,
" to see you at length out of thral
dom!" "Thraldom?" quoth I,
" that's rather a strong word ! " '
Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, v. 270.
6 Croker inserts this name, appa
rently to complete the thirteen, but
Dr. Lawrence's brother is included
in BoswelFs list.
7 Afterwards Lord Chancellor.
Life, ii. 173.
8 Philip Metcalfe, one of Reynolds's
executors. Ib. iv. 159, n. 2.
9 The brother of H. W. Bunbury,
the caricaturist. Ib. ii. 274. Sir
Charles was the only man of heredi-
Feb.
to Edmond Malone. 31
Feb. 10. 1791. Yours of the 5th reached me yesterday.
I instantly went to the Don, who purchased for you at the
office of Hazard and Co. a half, stamped by government and
warranted undrawn, of No. 43 m 152. in the English State
Lottery. I have marked on the back of it Edward, Henrietta,
and Catherine Malone, and if Fortune will not favour those
three united, I shall blame her. This half shall lie in my
bureau with my own whole one, till you desire it to be placed
elsewhere. The cost with registration is 8/. 12.?. 6d. A half is
always proportionally dearer than a whole. I bought my ticket
at Nicholson's the day before, and paid i6/. 8s. for it1. I did
not look at the number, but sealed it up. In the evening
a handbill was circulated by Nicholson, that a ticket the day
before sold at his office for i6/. 8s. was drawn a prize for 5ooo/.
The number was mentioned in the handbill. I had resolved
not to know what mine was till after the drawing of the lottery
was finished, that I might not receive a sudden shock of blank ;
but this unexpected circumstance, which elated me by calculating
that mine must certainly be one of 100, or at most 200 sold
by Nicholson the day before, made me look at the two last
figures of it ; which, alas ! were 48, whereas those of the fortunate
one were 33. I have remanded my ticket to its secrecy. O !
could I but get a few thousands, what a difference would it
make upon my state of mind, which is harassed by thinking
of my debts2. I am anxious to hear your determination as
tary rank who attended Johnson's for 1791 is entered on May 19,
funeral. He married Lady Sarah * Profit in 50,000 lottery-tickets at
Lennox, with whom George III had £16. 2. 6 — .£306,250.' Annual
been in love. Being divorced, she Register, 1791, Appendix, i. 116.
married the Hon. George Napier, by The difference bet ween £16. 2. 6 and
whom she was the mother of Sir £16. 8 was, I suppose, the dealer's
Charles Napier, the conqueror of profit. The total sum paid at this
Scinde, and Sir William Napier, the rate for the tickets was ,£820,000, of
historian. Walpole's Letters, iii. which little more than £500,000
373 n. She died in 1826 — a great was returned in prizes, while over
grand-daughter of Charles II. Top- £13,000 went to the dealers,
ham Beauclerk and Charles James 2 I learnt on good authority at
Fox, both of whom Johnson called Auchinleck that Boswell left his
his friends, were descended from estates nearly clear of debt, but that
Charles II. they became encumbered by his
1 In the Table of Way sand Means son, Sir Alexander, and his grand-
to
32 Extracts from James Boswell* s Letters
to my magnum opus. I am very unwilling to part with the
property of it, and certainly would not, if I could but get
credit for iooc/. for three or four years. Could you not assist
me in that way, on the security of the book, and of an assign
ment to one half of my rents, 7oo/. which, upon my honour,
are always due, and would be forthcoming in case of my decease ?
I will not sell, till I have your answer as to this.
On Tuesday we had a Club of eleven. Lords Lucan x (in the
chair), Ossory, Macartney 2, Eliot 3, Bishop of Clonfert 4, young
Burke, myself, Courtenay, Windham, Sir Joshua, and Charles
Fox, who takes to us exceedingly, and asked to have dinner
a little later ; so it was to be at \ past five. Burke had made
a great interest for his drum-major5, and, would you believe
it ? had not Courtenay and I been there, he would have been
chosen. Banks was quite indignant, but had company at home.
Lord Ossory ventured to put up the Bishop of Peterborough,
and I really hope he will get in. Courtenay and I will not
be there, and probably not again till you come. It was poor
work last week, the whelp 6 would not let us hear Fox .... I am
strangely ill, and doubt if even you could dispel the demoniac
son, Sir James Boswell. The popu
lation of Auchinleck had risen, be
tween 1834 and 1889, from 1,600 to
nearly 7,000. This rapid increase
was due to the coal mines which
were opened about 1854, and at one
time added ,£5,000 a year to the
Boswell rental.
1 Life, iv. 326.
2 ' Lord Macartney (wrote Boswell
in the Advertisement to the second
edition of the Life, i. 13) favoured me
with his own copy of my book, with
a number of notes, of which I have
availed myself. On the first leaf I
found in his Lordship's hand-writing,
an inscription of such high commen
dation, that even I, vain as I am,
cannot prevail on myself to publish
it.' I hope that this volume will find
its way into a public library.
3 It was he of whom Johnson said,
' I did not think a young Lord could
have mentioned to me a book in the
English history that was not known
to me.' Life, iv. 333.
4 Richard Marlay, once Dean of
Ferns and afterwards Bishop of
Waterford. Life, iv. 73. On Jan.
27, 1782, he wrote to Lord Charle-
mont : — ' Our club black-balled lord
Camden. This conduct should dis
grace the society. The bishop of St.
Asaph was once black-balled, but is
now elected. The club must have
some wretched members belonging
to it, or the two greatest and most
virtuous characters in the kingdom
could not be treated with such dis
respect.' Hist. MSS. Com., Twelfth
Report, App. x. 396.
5 Dr. Lawrence.
6 Perhaps young Burke.
influence.
to Edmond Malone. 33
influence. I have now before me p. 488. in print: the 923
pages of the copy only is exhausted, and there remains 80,
besides the death ; as to which I shall be concise, though
solemn ; also many letters. Pray how shall I wind up ? Shall
I give the character in my Tour, somewhat enlarged * ?
London, Feb. 25. 1791. I have not seen Sir Joshua I think
for a fortnight. I have been worse than you can possibly
imagine, or I hope ever shall be able to imagine ; which no
man can do without experiencing the malady. It has been
for some time painful to me to be in company. I, however,
am a little better, and to meet Sir Joshua to-day at dinner
at Mr. Dance's2, and shall tell him that he is to have good
Irish claret.
I am in a distressing perplexity how to decide as to the
property of my book. You must know, that I am certainly
informed that a certain person who delights in mischief has
been depreciating it 3, so that I fear the sale of it may be very
dubious. Two quartos and two guineas sound in an alarming
manner. I believe, in my present frame, I should accept even
of 5oc/. ; for I suspect that were I now to talk to Robinson 4,
I should find him not disposed to give iooo/. Did he abso
lutely offer it, or did he only express himself so as that you
concluded he would give it ? The pressing circumstance is, that
I must lay down iooo/. by the 1st of May, on account of the
purchase of land, which my old family enthusiasm urged me
to make. You, I doubt not, have full confidence in my honesty.
May I then ask you if you could venture to join with me in
1 In the entry of Feb. 10, 1791, In consequence of his political
I have followed the reprint of the phrenzy, he at this moment is appre-
original in Mr. A. Morrison's Auto- hensive of judgment being pro-
graphs, 2nd series, i. 375. nounced against him by the King's
2 There were two painters of this Bench for selling Paine's pamphlet,
name, George and Nathaniel. Tay- and may probably be punished for
lor's Reynolds, i. 260 ; ii. 609. his zeal in the " good old cause," as
3 George Steevens, no doubt. they called it in the last century, by
4 Malone, writing on Nov. 15, 1793, six months imprisonment. I shall
about Mr. George Robinson, who had not have the smallest pity for him.'
undertaken to publish a new edition Hist. MSS. Com., Thirteenth Report,
of his Shakespeare, says : — ' He is App. viii. 222.
unluckily a determined republican.
VOL. ii. D a bond
34 Extracts from James Boswell's Letters
a bond for that sum, as then I would take my chance, and, as
Sir Joshua says, game with my book ? Upon my honour, your
telling me that you cannot comply with what I propose will
not in the least surprise me, or make any manner of difference
as to my opinion of your friendship. I mean to ask Sir Joshua
if he will join ; for indeed I should be vexed to sell my Magnum
Opus for a great deal less than its intrinsic value. I meant
to publish on Shrove Tuesday ; but if I can get out within
the month of March I shall be satisfied. I have now, I think,
four or five sheets to print, which will make my second volume
about 575 pages. But I shall have more cancels. That nervous
mortal W. G. H. is not satisfied with my report of some
particulars which I wrote down from his own mouth, and is
so much agitated, that Courtenay has persuaded me to allow
a new edition of them by H. himself to be made at H/s
expense x. Besides, it has occurred to me, that when I mention
a literary fraud, by Rolt the historian, in going to Dublin,
and publishing Akenside's Pleasures of the Imagination, with
his own name2, I may not be able to authenticate it, as Johnson
1 W. G. H. was William Gerard
Hamilton. The cancel occurs at
vol. ii. 396 of the first edition ; vol. iv.
1 1 1 of mine ; where, instead of the
paragraph which now begins, ' One
of Johnson's principal talents,' the
following had stood: — 'His friend,
Mr. Hamilton, when dining at my
house one day expressed this so well
that I wrote down his words : —
" Johnson's great excellence in main
taining the wrong side of an argu
ment was a splendid perversion. If
you could contrive it so as to have
his fair opinion upon a subject,
without any bias from personal pre
judice, or from a wish to con
quer — it was wisdom, it was justice,
it was convincing, it was over
powering." '
The blank on the next page was
filled by Hamilton. ' Mr. Hamilton,'
wrote Malone, ' has all his life been
distinguished for political timidity
and indecision.' Prior's Malone, p.
418.
On Feb. 10 Boswell wrote to Ma-
lone : — ' I must have a cancelled leaf
in vol. ii. [p. 302] of that passage
where there is a conversation as to
conjugal infidelity on the husband's
side, and his wife saying she did not
care how many women he went to,
if he loved her alone, with my pro
posing to mark in a pocket-book,
every time a wife refuses, &c., &c.
I wonder how you and I admitted
this to the public eye, for Windham,
&c. were struck with its indelicacy,
and it might hurt the book much.
It is however mighty good stuff.'
The passage occurs in vol. iii. p.
406 of my edition, where Johnson
says : — ' Wise married women don't
trouble themselves about the infi
delity in their husbands.'
2 Life ,i. 359. No change was made;
' literary fraud ' remains in the text.
is
to Edmond Malone.
35
is dead, and he may have relations who may take it up as
an offence, perhaps a libel1. Courtenay suggests, that you may
perhaps get intelligence whether it was true. The Bishop of
Dromore2 can probably tell, as he knows a great deal about
Rolt. In case of doubt, should I not cancel the leaf, and either
omit the curious anecdote or give it as a story which Johnson
laughingly told as having circulated ?
March 8. I have before me your volunteer letter of February
, and one of 5th current, which, if you have dated it right,
has come with wonderful expedition. You may be perfectly
sure that I have not the smallest fault to find with your dis
inclination to come again under any pecuniary engagements for
others, after having suffered so much. Dilly proposes that he
and Baldwin3 should each advance 2oo/. on the credit of my
book ; and if they do so, I shall manage well enough, for
I now find I can have 6oo/. in Scotland on the credit of my
rents ; and thus I shall get the iooo/. paid in May.
1 See Life, iii. 15 for the agitation
of ' the question, whether legal re-
dress could be obtained, even when
a man's deceased relation was calum-
niated in a publication.' Johnson
said, 'the law does not regard that
uneasiness which a man feels on
having his ancestor calumniated.'
Boswell, in a note on this, says : —
* It is held in the books, that an
attack on the reputation even of a
dead man may be punished as
a libel, because tending to a breach
of the peace. There is, however,
I believe, no modern decided case
to that effect.'
' Chief Justice Mansfield laid down
for law that satires even on dead
kings were punishable.' Walpole's
Memoirs of the Reign of George 77,
iii. 153. See also his Letters, viii.
533. Blackstone makes no mention
of libels on the dead.
Antony a Wood was expelled from
the University of Oxford, and fined
^34, for libelling the memory of the
first Earl of Clarendon. With this
fine the statues at the entrance of
the Physic Garden were set up.
Bliss's Antony a Wood, pp. 381-2.
A friend of mine travelling lately
in the East of Europe, found that
a number of a Vienna newspaper was
confiscated, as it contained an attack
on Maria Theresa, who, like Socrates,
'has been dead a hundred years
ago.'
2 Dr. Percy.
3 Boswell, in the ' Advertisement
to the Second Edition,' says : — ' May
I be permitted to say that the typo-
graphy of both editions does honour
to the press of Mr. Henry Baldwin,
now Master of the Worshipful Com-
pany of Stationers, whom I have
long known as a worthy man and an
obliging friend.' Life, \. 10.
2 You
36 Extracts from James Boswell's Letters
You would observe some stupid lines on Mr. Burke in the
'Oracle' by Mr. Boswelll I instantly wrote to Mr. Burke,
expressing my indignation at such impertinence, and had next
morning a most obliging answer. Sir William Scott told me
I could have no legal redress. So I went civilly to Bell, and he
promised to mention handsomely that James Boswell, Esq. was
not the author of the lines z. The note, however, on the subject
was a second impertinence. But I can do nothing. I wish Fox,
in his bill upon libels 2, would make a heavy penalty the con
sequence of forging any person's name to any composition,
which, in reality, such a trick amounts to.
In the night between the last of February and first of this
month, I had a sudden relief from the inexplicable disorder,
which occasionally clouds my mind and makes me miserable3,
and it is amazing how well I have been since. Your friendly
admonition as to excess in wine has been often too applicable ;
but upon this late occasion I erred on the other side. However,
as I am now free from my restriction to Courtenay 4, I shall be
much upon my guard ; for, to tell the truth, I did go too deep
the day before yesterday; having dined with Michael Angelo
Taylor5, and then supped at the London Tavern with the
stewards of the Humane Society, and continued till I know not
what hour in the morning. John Nichols was joyous to a pitch
of bacchanalian vivacity. I am to dine with him next Monday ;
an excellent city party, Alderman Curtis, Deputy Birch6, &c.
&c. I rated him gently on his saying so little of your Shake
speare 7. He is ready to receive more ample notice. You may
1 Life, i. 190, n. 4. [ed. 1799, p. 247. See also ib. p.
2 On Feb. 21 Fox had given notice 295]. Windham replied : — ' Mr.
that he intended to bring before the Taylor is fair game enough, and
House ' the conduct of the Court of likes that or any other way whatever
King's Bench in giving judgment of obtaining notice.' Mme. D'Ar-
and sentence upon libels.' Parl. blay's Diary, iv. 139.
Hist, xxviii. 1261. 6 < Every Alderman has his Deputy,
3 Life, i. 343 ; iii. 421. chosen out of the Common Council,
Ante, ii. 21. and in some of the wards that are
5 Miss Burney complained to very large the Alderman has two
Windham that her father and M. A. Deputies.' Dodsley's London, i. 147.
Taylor ' had been most impertinently 7 In the Gentleman's Magazine, of
coupled ' in the Probationary Odes which Nichols was editor.
depend
to Edmond Malone. 37
depend on your having whatever reviews that mention you sent
directly. Have I told you that Murphy has written An Essay
on the Life and Writings of Dr. Johnson, to be prefixed to the
new edition of his works? He wrote it in a month, and has
received 2OO/. for it 1. I am quite resolved now to keep the
property of my Magnum Opus ; and I flatter myself I shall not
repent it.
My title, as we settled it, is 'The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.,
comprehending an account of his studies and various works, in
chronological order, his conversations with many eminent persons,
a series of his letters to celebrated men, and several original
pieces of his composition: the whole exhibiting a view of
literature and literary men in Great Britain, for near half
a century, during which he flourished2.' It will be very kind
if you will suggest what yet occurs. I hoped to have published
to-day ; but it will be about a month yet before I launch.
March 12. Being the depositary of your chance in the lottery,
I am under the disagreeable necessity of communicating the bad
news that it has been drawn a blank. I am very sorry, both on
your account and that of your sisters, and my own ; for had
your share of good fortune been 31667. 13^. 4^. I should have
hoped for a loan to accommodate me. As it is, I shall, as I wrote
to you, be enabled to weather my difficulties for some time : but
I am still in great anxiety about the sale of my book, I find
so many people shake their heads at the two quartos and two
guineas. Courtenay is clear that I should sound Robinson, and
accept of a thousand guineas, if he will give that sum. Mean
time, the title-page must be made as good as may be. It
appears to me that mentioning his studies, works, conversations,
and letters is not sufficient ; and I would suggest comprehending
an account, in chronological order, of his studies, works, friend
ships, acquaintance, and other particulars ; his conversation with
eminent men ; a series of his letters to various persons ; also
several original pieces of his composition never before published.
1 He received ,£300 for it. Nichols, 2 This title Bos well somewhat
Lit. Anec.j ix. 159. modified.
The
38 Extracts from BosweWs Letters to Malone.
The whole, &c. You will, probably, be able to assist me in ex
pressing my idea, and arranging the parts. In the advertisement
I intend to mention the letter to Lord Chesterfield, and perhaps
the interview with the King, and the names of the correspondents
in alphabetical order z. How should chronological order stand in
the order of the members of my title? I had at first 'celebrated
correspondents', which I don't like. How would it do to say
' his conversations and epistolary correspondence with eminent
(or celebrated) persons ? ' Shall it be ' different works,' and
' various particulars ' ? In short, it is difficult to decide.
Courtenay was with me this morning. What a mystery is
his going on at all ! Yet he looks well, talks well, dresses well,
keeps his mare — in short is in all respects like a parliament
man. Do you know that my bad spirits are returned upon
me to a certain degree ; and such is the sickly fondness for
change of place, and imagination of relief, that I sometimes
think you are happier by being in Dublin, than one is in this
great metropolis, where hardly any man cares for another.
I am persuaded I should relish your Irish dinners very much.
I have at last got chambers in the Temple, in the very staircase
where Johnson lived 2 ; and when my Magnum Opus is fairly
launched, there shall I make a trial 3.
1 The advertisement is the pre
face. In it he does not make this
mention.
2 Letters, i. 90, n. 3.
3 Boswell wrote to Temple on
April 6 : — ' My Life of Johnson is at
last drawing to a close. I am cor
recting the last sheet, and have only
to write an advertisement, to make
out a note of Errata, and to correct
a second sheet of Contents, one
being done. I am at present in such
bad spirits that I have every fear
concerning it, — that I may get no
profit, nay, may lose, — that the
Public may be disappointed, and
think that I have done it poorly, —
that I may make many enemies, and
even have quarrels. Yet perhaps
the very reverse of all this may hap
pen.' Letters to Temple, p. 335.
On Aug. 22 he wrote : — * My
magnum opus sells wonderfully ;
twelve hundred are now gone, and
we hope the whole seventeen hundred
may be gone before Christmas.' Ib.
p. 342.
ANECDOTES
BY THE
REV. DR. THOMAS CAMPBELL1
MARCH nth [1775]. It rained incessantly from the hour
I awoke, that is, eight, till near twelve, that I went to bed, and
how much further that night, I know not. This day I dined
with the Club at the British Coffee [house] 2, introduced by my
old College friend Day. The President was a Scotch Member
of Parliament, Mayne, and the prevalent interest Scottish. They
did nothing but praise Macpherson's new history3, and decry
Johnson and Burke. Day humorously gave money to the
waiter, to bring him Johnson's Taxation no Tyranny. One of
them desired him to save himself the expense, for that he
should have it from him, and glad that he would take it away,
as it was worse than nothing. Another said it was written in
Johnson's manner, but worse than usual, for that there was
nothing new in it.
1 From A Diary of a Visit to 3 ( The History of Great Britain
England in 1775. By an Irishman from the Restoration to the Acces-
(The Reverend Dr. Thomas Camp- sion of the House of Hanover. 2 vols.
bell), with Notes by Samuel Ray- quarto, £2. is' Gent. Mag. 1775,
mond, M.A., Prothonotary of the p. 192. Hume, writing to Strahan,
Supreme Court of New South Wales. described it as ' one of the most
Sydney: Waugh & Cox, 1854. For wretched Productions that ever came
the question of the authenticity of from your Press.' Letters of Hume to
this Diary see Life, ii. 338, n. 2. * In Strahan, p. 308. ' For Macpherson,'
a marginal note Mrs. Thrale says of wrote Horace Walpole, * I stopped
Dr. Campbell: " He was a fine showy dead short in the first volume;
talking man, Johnson liked him of never was such a heap of insignifi-
all things in a year or two." ' Hay- cant trash and lies.' Walpole's Let-
ward's Piozzi, 2nd ed., i. 99. ters, vi. 202.
2 Life, ii. 195 ; iv. 179, n. I.
I4th.
40 Anecdotes by
1 4th. The first entire fair day, since I came to London. This
day I called at Mr. Thrale's, where I was received with all
respect by Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. She is a very learned lady *,
and joyns to the charms of her own sex, the manly understanding
of ours. The immensity of the Brewery astonished me. One
large house contains, and cannot contain more, only four store
vessels, each of which contains fifteen hundred barrels ; and in
one of which one hundred persons have dined with ease 2. There
are besides in other houses, thirty six of the same construction,
but of one half the contents.
1 5th. A fair day. Dined with Archdeacon Congreve, to whom
Dr. S. Johnson was schoolfellow at Litchfield 3. The Doctor had
visited the Archdeacon yesterday, by which accident I learned
this circumstance.
i6th. A fair day. Dined with Mr. Thrale along with Dr. John
son, and Baretti. Baretti is a plain sensible man, who seems to
know the world well. He talked to me of the invitation given
him by the College of Dublin, but said it (one hundred pounds
a year, and rooms,) was not worth his acceptance ; and if it had
been, he said, in point of profit, still he would not have accepted
it, for that now he could not live out of London. He had
returned a few years ago to his own country 4, but he could
not enjoy it; and he was obliged to return to London, to those
connections he had been making for near thirty years past. He
told me he had several families, with whom, both in town and
country, he could go at any time, and spend' a month : he is at
this time on these terms at Mr. Thrale's, and he knows how to
keep his ground. Talking as we were at tea of the magnitude
of the beer vessels, he said there was one thing in Mr. Thrale's
house, still more extraordinary ; meaning his wife. She gulped
' Her learning,' said Johnson, him to brew in afterwards.' Ante,
' is that of a school-boy in one of the i. 214.
lower forms.' Life, i. 494. 3 Life, i. 45. Johnson described
' Here is Thrale has a thousand him as 'a very pious man, but always
tun of copper (said Johnson to Rey- muddy.' Ib. ii. 460. See also ib. ii.
nolds) ; you may paint it all round 474 ; Letters, i. 304, 378, 9.
if you will, I suppose; it will serve 4 Life, i. 361.
the
the Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell. 41
the pill very prettily — so much for Baretti x ! Johnson, you
are the very man Lord Chesterfield describes : — a Hottentot
indeed 2, and tho' your abilities are respectable, you never can
be respected yourself. He has the aspect of an Idiot, without
the faintest ray of sense gleaming from any one feature — with the
most awkward garb, and unpowdered grey wig, on one side only
of his head — he is for ever dancing the devil's jig, and sometimes
he makes the most driveling effort to whistle some thought in
his absent paroxisms 3. He came up to me and took me by the
hand, then sat down on a sofa, and mumbled out that he had
heard two papers had appeared against him in the course of this
week — one of which was — that he was to go to Ireland next
.summer in order to abuse the hospitality of that place also 4.
His awkwardness at table is just what Chesterfield described,
and his roughness of manners kept pace with that. When
Mrs. Thrale quoted something from Foster's Sermons, he flew
in a passion and said that Foster was a man of mean ability,
and of no original thinking 5. All which tho' I took to be most
true, yet I held it not meet to have it so set down. He said
that he looked upon Burke to be the author of Junius, and that
though he would not take him contra mundum, yet he would
take him against any man6. Baretti was of the same mind,
1 Mrs. Thrale thus ends- some lines 4 He was charged with having
she wrote on Baretti : — abused the hospitality of the Scotch
' While tenderness, temper and in \i\sjourney to the Western Islands
truth he despises, just published. Life, ii. 305. Of
And only the triumph of victory Ireland he said : — ' It is the last
prizes, place where I should wish to travel
Yet let us be candid, and where . . . Yet he had a kindness for the
shall we find Irish nation.' Ib. iii. 410.
So active, so able, so ardent a 5 ' Mr. Beauclerk one day repeated
mind ? to Dr. Johnson Pope's lines,
To your children more soft, more " Let modest Foster, if he will,
polite with your servant, excel
More firm in distress, or in friend- Ten metropolitans in preaching
ship more fervent ? ' well " ;
Hayward's Piozzi, 2nd ed. ii. 177. then asked the Doctor, "Why did
2 It was not Johnson that Chester- Pope say this?" JOHNSON. "Sir,
field described. Ante, i. 384, 451; he hoped it would vex somebody." '
Life, i. 267, n. 2. Ib. iv. 9.
3 Life, iii. 357. 6 * JOHNSON. " I should have be-
tho'
42 Anecdotes by
tho' he mentioned a fact which made against the opinion, which
was that a paper having appeared against Junius, on this day,
a Junius came out in answer to that the very next, when
(every body knew) Burke was in Yorkshire. But all the Juniuses
were evidently not written by the same hand. Burke's brother
is a good writer, tho' nothing like Edward \sic\. The Doctor as
he drinks no wine, retired soon after dinner, and Baretti, who I see
is a sort of literary toad-eater to Johnson, told me that he was
a man nowise affected by praise or dispraise1, and that the
journey to the Hebrides would never have been published but
for himself. The Doctor however returned again, and with all
the fond anxiety of an author, I saw him cast out all his nets to
know the sense of the town about his last pamphlet, Taxation
no Tyranny, which he said did not sell 2. Mr. Thrale told him
such and such members of both houses admired it, and why did
you not tell me this, quoth Johnson3. Thrale asked him what
Sir Joshua Reynolds said of it. Sir Joshua, quoth the Doctor,
has not read it. I suppose, quoth Thrale, he has been very busy
of late ; no, says the Doctor, but I never look at his pictures, so
he won't read my writings. Was this like a man insensible
to glory ! Thrale then asked him if he had got Miss Reynolds'
opinion, for she it seems is a politician ; as to that, quoth the
Doctor, it is no great matter, for she could not tell after she had
read it, on which side of the question Mr. Burke's speech was.
N.B. — We had a great deal of conversation about Archdeacon
Congreve, who was his class-fellow at Litchfield School. He
talked of him as a man of great coldness of mind, who could
be two years in London without letting him know it till a
few weeks ago, and then apologising by saying, that he did
not know where to enquire for him4. This plainly raised his
lieved Burke to be Junius, because 2 On April 2, 'his Taxation no
I know no man but Burke who is Tyranny being mentioned, he said,
capable of writing these letters ; but " I think I have not been attacked
Burke spontaneously denied it to enough for it." ' Ib. ii.335- Six days
me."' Life, iii. 376. See ante, i. 172. later he wrote : — 'The patriots pelt
1 'He loved praise when it was me with answers.' Letters, i. 314.
brought to him ; but was too proud 3 See Life, iv. 32.
to seek for it. He was somewhat 4 Johnson wrote to Dr. Taylor on
susceptible of flattery.' Life, iv. 427. Dec. 22, 1774 :— ' How long Charles
indignation
the Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell. 43
indignation, for he swelled to think that his celebrity should not
be notorious to every porter in the street. The Archdeacon, he
told me, has a sermon upon the nature of moral good and evil,
preparing for the press, and should he die before publication,
he leaves fifty pounds for that purpose. He said he read some
of it to him, but that as he had interrupted him to make some
remarks, he hopes never to be troubled with another rehearsal I.
25th. Eddying winds in the forenoon rendered the streets
very disagreeable with dust, which was laid in the evening by
rain from three. Dined at Mr. Thrale's, where there were ten or
more gentlemen, and but one lady besides Mrs. Thrale. The
dinner was excellent 2 : first course, soups at head and foot
removed by fish and a saddle of mutton ; second course, a fowl
they call Galena at head, and a capon larger than some of our
Irish turkeys at foot ; third course, four different sorts of Ices,
Pineapple, Grape, Raspberry and a fourth ; in each remove, there
were I think fourteen dishes. The two first courses were served
in massy plate. I sat beside Baretti, which was to me the
richest part of the entertainment. He and Mr. and Mrs. Thrale
joyn'd in expressing to me Dr. Johnson's concern that he could
not give me the meeting that day, but desired that I should go
and see him. Baretti was very humourous about his new
publication3, which he expects to put out next month. He
there introduces a dialogue about Ossian, wherein he ridicules
the idea of its double translation into Italian, in hopes, he said, of
having it abused by the Scots, which would give it an im
primatur for a second edition, and he had stipulated for twenty
five guineas additional if the first should sell in a given time.
He repeated to me upon memory the substance of the letters
which passed between Dr. Johnson and Mr. McPherson. The
latter tells the Doctor, that neither his age nor infirmity's should
protect him if he came in his way. The Doctor responds that
Congreve has been here, I know not. Letters, i. 304. The sermon prob-
He told me he knew not how to find ably was not published ; it is not
me.' Letters^ i. 304. in the British Museum.
1 'He is going to print a sermon, 2 Life, iii. 423, n. I.
but I thought he appeared neither 3 Ib. ii. 449.
very acute nor very knowing.'
no
44 Anecdotes by
no menaces of any rascal should intimidate him from detecting
imposture wherever he met it x.
APRIL i st. A fair day, dined at Mr. Thrale's, whom in proof
of the magnitude of London, I cannot help remarking, no coach
man, and this is the third I have called, could find without
enquiry 2. But of this by the way. There was Murphy, Boswell,
and Baretti, the two last, as I learned just before I entered,
are mortal foes, so much so that Murphy and Mrs. Thrale
agreed that Boswell expressed a desire that Baretti should be
hanged upon that unfortunate affair of his killing, &c. 3 Upon
this hint I went, and without any sagacity it was easily dis-
cernable, for upon Baretti's entering, Boswell did not rise, and
upon Baretti's descry of Boswell, he grinned a perturbed glance.
Politeness however smooths the most hostile brows, and theirs
were smoothed. Johnson was the subject, both before and after
dinner, for it was the boast of all but myself, that under that
roof were the Doctor's first friends. His bon mots were retailed
in such plenty, that they, like a surfeit, could not lye upon my
memory. Boswell arguing in favour of a cheerful glass, adduced
the maxim in vino veritas^ 'well,' says Johnson, 'and what then
unless a man has lived a lye4.' B. then urged that it made
a man forget all his cares, 'that, to be sure' says Johnson 'might
be of use if a man sat by such a' person as you V Boswell
confessed that he liked a glass of whiskey in the Highland
tour, and used to take it ; at length says Johnson, ' let me try
wherein the pleasure of a Scotsman consists/ and so tips off
a brimmer of whiskey6. But Johnson's abstemiousness is new to
him, for within a few years he would swallow two bottles of Port
1 Life, ii. 298. some note in London ' who wondered
2 His town - house was in the who was the author of the Pater
Borough, on the southern side of Noster. Ib. v. 121. Boswell's ac-
the Thames. count of his trial for murder is not
3 Boswell coldly describes him as such an account as a friend would
'an Italian of considerable literature.' have written. Ib. ii. 97.
Life, i. 302. He most likely was 4 Ib. ii. 188; ante, i. 321.
'the foreign friend of Johnson's, so 5 Life, ii. 193.
wretchedly perverted to infidelity 6 ' Come (said he) let me know
that he treated the hopes of im- what it is that makes a Scotchman
mortality with a brutal levity.' Ib. happy.' Ib. v. 346.
ii. 8. He also was the * Italian of
without
the Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell. 45
without any apparent alteration, and once in the company with
whom I dined this day, he said, pray Mr. Thrale give us another
>ttle V It is ridiculous to pry so nearly into the movements
of such men, yet Boswell carrys it to a degree of superstition.
The Doctor it appears has a custom of putting the peel of
oranges into his pocket, and he asked the Doctor what use he
made of them, the Doctor's reply was, that his dearest friend
should not know that 2. This has made poor Boswell unhappy,
and I verily think he is as anxious to know the secret as a green
sick girl. N.B. The book wherewith Johnson presented the
highland lady was Cocker's Arithmetic 3.
Murphy gave it (on Garrick's authority) that when it was asked
what was the greatest pleasure, Johnson answered * * But Garrick
is his most intimate friend, they came to London together and
he4 is very correct both in his conduct and language ; as a proof
of this, they all agreed in a story of him and Dr. James 5, who is,
it seems, a very lewd fellow, both verbo et facto. James, it seems,
in a coach with his whoor, took up Johnson, and set him down
at a given place Johnson hearing afterwards what the lady was
attacked James, when next he met him, for carrying him about
in such company. James apologised by saying * * . ' Damn the
rascal 6,' says Johnson, * he is past sixty the * .'
Boswell desirous of setting his native country off to the best
advantage expatiated upon the beauty of a certain prospect,
particularly upon a view of the sea. * O Sir,' says Johnson, * the
sea is the same everywhere V
1 * Talking of drinking wine John- were neither uttered by Johnson, nor
son said, " I did not leave off wine reported of him at a table where his
because I could not bear it; I have a version to profanity was known; nor
drunk three bottles of port without is it at all likely that he uttered any-
being the worse for it. University thing which the editor of Dr. Camp-
College has witnessed this." ' Life, bell's Diary could not have printed,
iii. 245. Reynolds, who knew him so well,
3 It was on the morning of this said that ' he would never suffer the
same day that Boswell received this least immorality or indecency of con-
reply. Id. ii. 330. See also Letters, versation to proceed without a severe
i. 49. check.' Post in Sir J. Reynolds's
3 Life, v. 138. Anecdotes ; ante, ii. 17.
4 Johnson, not Garrick, is meant. 7 Life, v. 54.
5 Ib. i. 8l, 159; iii. 389, n. 2. • Johnson, in a letter as printed by
6 These words, we may be sure, Mrs. Piozzi, wrote : — ' I am glad that
Dr.
Anecdotes by
Dr. Johnson calls the act in Braganza x with the monk, para-
lytick on one side ; i. e. the monk is introduced without any
notification of his character, so that any monk, or any other
person might as well be introduced in the same place, and for
the same purpose. And I myself say, that Velasquez quitting his
hold of the Dutchess, upon sight of the monk, is an effect without
a sufficient cause. The cool, intrepid character of Velasquez
required that he should either have dispatched, or attempted to
dispatch the monk, and then there would have been a pretext for
losing hold of the Dutchess. The Duke is a poor, tame animal,
and by no means equal to his historic character. A whimsical
incident I was witness to there. Murphy told a very comical
story of a Scotchman's interview with Dr. Johnson, upon his
earnest desire of being known to the Doctor. This was Boswell
himself2. N.B. The Tour to the Western Isles was written in
twenty days 3, and the Patriot in three 4. Taxation no Tyranny
within a week 5, and not one of them would have yet seen the
light, had it not been for Mrs. Thrale and Baretti, who stirred
him up by laying wagers 6.
the ladies find so much novelty at
Weymouth. Ovid says that the sun
is undelightfully uniform.' I con
jectured in a note that he wrote not
sun but sea. Letters, ii. 325. I could
not however find the reference to
Ovid. I have no doubt however
that he was referring to the line
which he quoted to Boswell at
Leith :—
'Una est injusti caerula forma
maris.'
Ovid, Amor. L. ii. El. xi.
1 A tragedy by Robert Jephson,
acted at Drury Lane 1775. Post,
p. 182.
2 Ante, \. 428.
3 He ' conceived the thought of it '
on Sept. I, 1773. Life, v. 141. For
part of his material he used his letters
to Mrs. Thrale. In the following
winter he was collecting information.
Ib. ii. 269, 271. In March he wrote
to Boswell :— ' I think I shall be very
diligent next week about our travels,
which I have too long neglected.'
Ib. ii. 277. On June 20 he 'put the
first sheets to the press.' Ib. p. 278.
On July 4 he had still two sheets to
write. Ib. p. 288. Owing to the
delay of the printer the last sheet was
not corrected till Nov. 25. Ib. p. 288.
4 < The Patriot was called for by
my political friends on Friday, was
written on Saturday.' Ib. ii. 288.
5 On Jan. 21, 1775, he wrote to
Boswell : — ' I am going to write about
the Americans.' Ib. ii. 292. On Feb. 3
he wrote to Mrs. Thrale :— ' My
pamphlet has not gone on at all.'
Letters, i. 308. By March i it had
been not only written, but altered by
some one in the Ministry. Ib. i. 309.
' The False Alarm was written be
tween eight o'clock on Wednesday
night and twelve o'clock on Thurs
day night.' Ante, i. 173.
6 According to Hawkins, 'it was
APRIL
the Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell. 47
APRIL 5th. Dined with Dilly in the Poultry1, as guest to
Mr. Boswell, where I met Dr. Johnson, (and a Mr. Miller, who
lives near Bath2, who is a dilletanti man, keeps a weekly day
for the Litterati, and is himself so litterate, that he gathereth
all the flowers that ladies write, and bindeth into a garland,
but enough of him) with several others, particularly a Mr. Scott3,
who seems to be a very sensible plain man. The Doctor, when
I came in, had an answer titled Taxation and Tyranny to his
last pamphlet, in his hand. He laughed at it, and said he
would read no more of it, for that it paid him compliments,
but gave him no information. He asked if there were any
more of them. I told him I had seen another, and that the
Monthly Review had handled it in what I believed he called
the way of information. ' Well,' says he, ' I should be glad to
see it/ Then Boswell (who understands his temper well4)
asked him somewhat, for I was not attending, relative to the
Provincial Assemblies5. The Doctor, in process of discourse
with him, argued with great vehemence that the Assemblies
were nothing more than our Vestries. I asked him, was there
not this difference, that an Act of the Assemblies required
the King's assent to pass into a law : his answer had more of
wit than of argument. 'Well Sir,' says he, 'that only gives
it more weight.' I thought I had gone too far, but dinner
was then announced, and Dilly, who paid all attention to him,
in placing him next to the fire, said, * Doctor, perhaps you will
be too warm 6.' ' No Sir,' says the Doctor, ' I am neither hot
by a wager, or some other pecuniary to talk, for which it was often neces-
engagement ' that he was moved to sary to employ some address.'
finish his Shakespeare. Life, i. 319, s The assemblies of the thirteen
n. 4. American colonies.
1 At Billy's table 'Johnson, who 6 'Johnson told Sir Joshua Rey-
boasted of the niceness of his palate, nolds, that once when he dined in
owned that " he always found a good a numerous company of booksellers,
dinner.'" Life, iii. 285. For this where, the room being small, the
particular dinner see id. ii. 338. head of the table at which he sat
2 Ib. ii. 336. was almost close to the fire, he
3 John Scott of Amwell, the Quaker persevered in suffering a great deal
poet. Ib. ii. 338, 351. of inconvenience from the heat,
4 See ib. iii. 39, where Boswell rather than quit his place, and let
asked him a question 'with an as- one of them sit above him.' Ib.
sumed air of ignorance, to incite him iii. 311.
nor
48 Anecdotes by
nor cold.' ' And yet,' said I ; Doctor, you are not a lukewarm
man/ This I thought pleased him, and as I sat next him, I had
a fine opportunity of attending to his phiz ; and I could clearly
see he was fond of having his quaint things laughed at, and they
(without any force) gratified my propensity to affuse grinning.
Mr. Dilly led him to give his opinion of men and things, of
which he is very free, and Dilly will probably retail them all.
Talking of the Scotch, (after Boswell was gone) he said, though
they were not a learned nation, yet they were far removed from
ignorance. Learning was new among them, and he doubted
not but they would in time be a learned people, for they were
a fine, bold enterprising people. He compared England and
Scotland to two lions, the one saturated with his belly full,
and the other prowling for prey. But the test he offered to
prove that Scotland, tho' it had learning enough for common
life, yet had not sufficient for the dignity of literature, was,
that he defied any one to produce a classical book, written in
Scotland since Buchanan x. Robertson, he said, used pretty
words, but he liked Hume better2, and neither of them would
he allow to be more to Clarendon 3, than a rat to a cat. ' A
Scotch surgeon,' says he ' may have more learning than an
English one. and all Scotland could not muster learning enough
for Louth's prelections4.' Turning to me, he said, 'you have
produced classical writers and scholars ; I don't know,' says
he, ( that any man is before Usher 5, as a scholar, unless it may
be Seldon [stc], and you have a philosopher, Boyle, and you
have Swift and Congreve, but the latter,' says he, c denied you 6 ' ;
and he might have added the former too7. He then said, you
1 Ante, ii. 5, 15. and a greater, he added, no church
2 In 1773 Johnson said: — 'I have could boast of, at least in modern
not read Hume.' Life, ii. 236 ; ante, times.3 Ib. ii. 132.
ii. 10. 6 ' Southern mentioned Congreve
3 ' Clarendon (said Johnson) is with sharp censure as a man that
supported by his matter. It is in- meanly disowned his native coun-
deed owing to a plethory of matter try.' Works, viii. 23.
that his style is so faulty.' Life, iii. 7 * Swift was contented to be called
258. an Irishman by the Irish, but would
4 For Lowth see ib. ii. 37. occasionally call himself an English-
5 'Usher (Johnson said) was the man.' Ib. viii. 192.
great luminary of the Irish church ;
certainly
the Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell. 49
certainly have a turn for the drama, for you have Southerne and
Farquhar and Congreve *, and many living authors and players.
Encouraged by this, I went back to assert the genius of Ireland
in old times, and ventured to say that the first professors of
Oxford and Paris, &c., were Irish. ' Sir,' says he, ' I believe
there is something in what you say 2 ; and I am content with
it, since they are not Scotch V
APRIL 8th. Very cold, and some rain, but not enough to
allay the blowing of the dust. Dined with Thrale4, where
Dr. Johnson was, and Boswell, (and Baretti as usual.) The
Doctor was not in as good spirits as he was at Dilly's. He
,had supped the night before with Lady Miss JefFry's, one
of the maids of honour, Sir Joshua Reynolds, &c., at Mrs.
Abington's 5. He said Sir C. Thompson, and some others who
were there, spoke like people who had seen good company,
and so did Mrs. Abington herself, who could not have seen
good company 6. He seems fond of Boswell, and yet he is
always abusing the Scots before him, by way of joke 7 : talking
of their nationality, he said they were not singular : the Negros
and Jews being so too. Boswell lamented there was no good
map of Scotland. ' There never can be a good (map) of Scot
land,' says the Doctor sententiously. This excited Boswell to
ask wherefore. 'Why Sir, to measure land, a man must go
over it; but who could think of going over Scotland8.' When
Dr. Goldsmith was mentioned, and Dr. Percy's intention of
writing his life 9, he expressed his approbation strongly, adding
that Goldsmith was the best writer he ever knew, upon every
1 He passes over Goldsmith. know not how much kiss of Mrs.
2 Johnson described Ireland as Abington, and very good looks from
having once been ' the school of the Miss , the maid of honour.'
west, the quiet habitation of sanctity Letters, i. 316.
and literature.' Life, iii. 112. 6 Northcote described her as 'the
3 'The Irish (he said) have not Grosvenor Square of Comedy.' Con-
that extreme nationality which we versations of Northcote, p. 298.
find in the Scotch.' Ib. ii. 242. 7 Boswell describes ' the good-
4 Ib. ii. 349. humoured pleasantry with which he
5 Ib. On March 27 he had gone played off his wit against Scotland.'
with ' a body of wits ' to her benefit. Life, ii. 77.
Ib. ii. 324. On May 12 he wrote to 8 Ib. ii. 356.
Mrs. Thrale :—' Yesterday I had I 9 Ib. iii. 100, n. i.
VOL. ii. E subject
50 Anecdotes by
subject he wrote upon x. He said that Kendric 2 had borrowed
all his dictionary from him. f Why,' says Boswell, e every man
who writes a dictionary must borrow.' ' No Sir/ says Johnson,
'that is not necessary.' 'Why/ says Boswell, 'have not you
a great deal in common with those who wrote before you/ ' Yes
Sir/ says Johnson, ( I have the words, but my business was not to
make words but to explain them.5 Talking of Garrick and Barry 3,
he said he always abused Garrick himself, but when anybody else
did so, he fought for the dog like a tiger 4 ; as to Barry, he said
he supposed he could not read. ' And how does he get his part ?'
says one. ' Why, somebody reads it to him, and yet I know/ says
he, ' that he is very much admired.' Mrs. Thrale then took him
by repeating a repartee of Murphy, the setting Barry up in com
petition with Garrick, is what irritates the English Criticks, and
Murphy standing up for Barry. Johnson said that he was fit for
nothing but to stand at an auction room door with his pole.
Murphy said that Garrick would do the business as well, and
pick the people's pockets at the same time. Johnson admitted
the fact, but said, Murphy spoke nonsense, for that people's
pockets were riot picked at the door, but in the room 5 ; then
said I, he was worse than the pick- pockets, forasmuch as he
was Pandar to them ; this went off with a laugh. Vive la
bagatelle 6. It was a case decided here, that there was no harm,
and much pleasure in laughing at our absent friends, and I
own, if the character is not damaged, I can see no injury done.
APRIL 9th. A fair day, went to St. Clements to hear Mr.
Burrows 7, so cried up by Lord Dartrey 8, preach, but I was
wofully disappointed ; his matter is cold, his manner hot, his
voice weak, and his action affected. Indeed I thought he
1 'JOHNSON. "Whether indeed 6 Swift's 'favourite maxim.' Works ^
we take Goldsmith as a poet, as a viii. 217.
comick writer, or as an historian, he 7 Life, iii. 379.
stands in the first class.'" Life, 8 Dartrey, Lord. Thomas Daw-
ii. 236. son, created a peer of Ireland, May
2 William Kenrick. /<$. i. 497 ; ii. 61. 28, 1770, as Baron Dartrey, of Daw-
3 Spranger Barry, the actor. son's Grove, and also Viscount
4 Ib. i. 397, n. I ; iii. 70, 312. Cremorne, June, 1785. B. 1725 ;
5 Ib. ii. 349. d. 1813.
preached
the Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell. 51
preached from a printed book, a book it certainly was, and it
seemed at my distance, which was the perpendicular to the
side of the pulpit, to have a broad margin-like print, and he
did not seem master of it, yet he affected much emphasis and
action. Dined with Mr. Combe, and spent the evening with
Dr. Campbell *.
APRIL loth. Rain, but not enough to soften the asperity of
the weather. Dined with General Oglethorpe 2, who was in lieu
of Aid-de-Camp, (for he had no such officer about him) to Prince
Eugene, and celebrated by Mr. Pope3. Dr. Johnson pressed
him to write his life ; adding, that no life in Europe was so well
worth recording 4. The old man excused himself, saying the life
of a private man was not worthy public notice. He however
desired Boswell to bring him some good Almanack, that he
might recollect dates, and seemed to excuse himself also on the
article of incapacity, but Boswell desired him only to furnish the
skeleton, and that Dr. Johnson would supply bones and sinews.
* He would be a good Doctor,' says the General, ' who would do
that.' 'Well/ says I, 'he is a good Doctor,' at which he,
the Doctor, laughed very heartily. Talking of America, it was
observed that his works would not be admired there. ' No,'
says Boswell, ' we shall soon hear of his being hung in effigy.'
' I should be glad of that,' says the Doctor, ' that would be
a new source of fame ; ' alluding to some conversation on the
fulness of his fame which had gone before. And says Boswell,
' I wonder he has not been hung in effigy from the Hebrides to
England.' ' I shall suffer them to do it corporeally,' says the
Doctor, ' if they can find me a tree to do it upon V
1 Dr. John Campbell. * JOHNSON. Oglethorpe's as he had been taken
" I used to go pretty often to Camp- to Billy's. Ib. ii. 350.
bell's on a Sunday evening, till I 3 Ib. i. 127 ; ii. 181.
began to consider that the shoals of 4 'Dr. Johnson urged General Ogle-
Scotchmen who flocked about him thorpe to give the world his Life,
might probably say, when anything He said, " I know no man whose
of mine was well done, { Ay, ay, he Life would be more interesting. If
has learnt this of Cawmell.' " ' Life, I were furnished with materials I
i. 418. should be very glad to write it.'"
2 It was by Boswell that Dr. Ib. ii. 351.
Thomas Campbell was taken to 5 Ib. ii. 311,
E a The
52 Anecdotes by
The Poem of the Graces became the topic ; Boswell asked if
he had never been under the hands of a dancing master x. * Aye,
and a dancing mistress too/ says the Doctor, ' but I own to you
I never took a lesson but one or two, my blind eyes showed me
I could never make a proficiency.' Boswell led him to give his
opinion of Gray, he said there were but two good stanzas in all
lis works, viz., the elegy2. Boswell desirous of eliciting his
opinion upon too many subjects, as he thought, he rose up
and took his hat3. This was not noticed by anybody as it
was nine o'clock, but after we got into Mr. Langton's coach,
who gave us a set down, he said, ' Boswell's conversation consists
entirely in asking questions, and it is extremely offensive Y we
fended it upon Boswell's eagerness to hear the Doctor speak.
Talking of suicide 5, Boswell took up the defence for argument's
sake, and the Doctor said that some cases were more excusable
than others, but if it were excusable, it should be the last
resource; 'for instance,5 says he, 'if a man is distressed in
circumstances, (as in the case I mentioned of Denny) he ought
to fly his country.' ' How can he fly,' says Boswell, ' if he
has wife and children?' 'What Sir/ says the Doctor, shaking
his head as if to promote the fermentation of his wit, ' doth not
a man fly from his wife and children if he murders himself?'
APRIL i6th. Dined with Archdeacon Congreve, my Lord Pri
mate6 came there in the evening. He asked me sneeringly if I had
seen the lions 7. I told him I had neither seen them nor the crown,
nor the jewels, nor the whispering-gallery at St. Paul's. The
conversation turned upon other things, and came round to his
picture by Reynolds, which led on talk of Sir Joshua and other
great artists, and without any force, I introduced something of
Johnson. ' What/ says he, ' do you know him ?' ' Yes my Lord
I do, and Barretti [sic], and several others, whom I have been
1 Life, iv. 79. 4 < Questioning (said Johnson) is
2 This he had said to Boswell not the mode of conversation among
about a fortnight earlier. Ib. ii. gentlemen.' Ib. ii. 472. See also
328. For two 'very good lines ' in ib. iii. 57, 268 ; iv. 439.
the Bard see ib. i. 403. 5 Ib. iv. 225 ; v. 54.
3 * He was not much in the humour 6 The Archbishop of Armagh,
of talking.' Ib. ii. 352. 7 In the Tower.
fortunate
the Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell. 53
fortunate enough to find willing to extend my acquaintance
among their friends, for these, my Lord, were the lions I came
to see in London.' 'Aye,' says he, 'these indeed are lions
worth seeing, and the sight of them may be of use to you.'
APRIL 2Oth. Fair, and somewhat softened by the fall of hail
yesterday. Dined at Thrale's x, with Dr. Johnson, Barretti, and
a Dean Wetherall of Oxford 2, who is soliciting for a riding house
at Oxford. When I mentioned to the Doctor another answer,
entitled Resistance no Rebellion, coming out, he said, 'that is
the seventh, the author finds the other six will not do, and I
foresee that the title is the best part of the book.' He desired
that I should visit him. N.B. — Talking after dinner of the
measures he would pursue with the Americans, he said the first
thing he would do, would be to quarter the army on the citys,
and if any refused free quarters, he would pull down that person's
house, if it was joyned to other houses, but would burn it if it
stood alone3. This and other schemes he proposed in the
manuscript of Taxation no Tyranny, but these, he said, the
Ministry expunged 4.
34th. Rainy morning. Sat an hour with Dr. Johnson about
noon. He was at breakfast with a Pindar5 in his hand, and after
saluting me with great cordiality, he, after whistling in his way 6
over Pindar, layed the book down, and then told me he had
seen my Lord Primate at Sir Joshua's, and ' I believe/ says he,
' I have not recommended myself much to him, for I differed
widely in opinions from him, yet I hear he is doing good things
in Ireland V I mentioned Skelton to him as a man of strong
1 Boswell was absent from London the Americans ' Rascals — Robbers —
from April 1910 May 2. Life, ii. 371. Pirates; exclaiming he'd burn and
2 Dr. Wetherell was Master of destroy them,' and post, p. 55.
University College, Oxford, and Dean 4 Life, ii. 313. For Hume's wise
of Hereford. Johnson had written views see his Letters to Strahan,
to Mrs. Thrale on April I :— ' Dr. p. 288.
Wetherell is very desirous of seeing 5 Boswell had sent him an ' elegant
the brewhouse ; I hope Mr. Thrale Pindar.' Life, ii. 204.
will send him an invitation.' Letters, 6 ' He half-whistled in his usual
i. 313. For the riding-school see way when pleasant.' Ib. iii. 357.
Life, ii. 424 ; Letters, i. 309, n. I. 7 For Johnson's views* about Ire-
3 See Life, iii. 290, where he called land see Life, ii. 121, 130, 255.
imagination,
54 Anecdotes by
imagination, and told him the story of his selling his library
for the support of the poor z. He seemed much affected by it,
and then fell a rowling and muttering to himself, and I could
hear him plainly say after several minutes pause from con
versation, ' Skelton is a great good man.' He then said, ' I
purpose reading his Ophiomachis, for I have never seen anything
of his, but some allegoric pieces which I thought very well of.'
He told me he had seen Delany when he was in every sense
gravis annis^ l but he was [an] able man,' says he, * his " Reve
lation examined with candour" was well received, and I have
seen an introductory preface to a second edition of one of his
books, which was the finest thing I ever read in the declamatory
way2.' He asked me whether Clayton was an English or Irish
man. ' He endeavoured to raise a hissy 3 among you,' says he,
' but without effect I believe.' I told him one effect in the case
of the parish clerks. His indignation was prodigious. 'Aye/
says he, ' these are the effects of heretical notions upon vulgar
minds.'
JUNE nth. 1781. I went to see Dr. Johnson, found him alone,
Barretti came soon after. Barretti (after some pause in conver
sation) asked me, if the disturbances were over in Ireland. I told
him I had not heard of any disturbances there. ' What,' says
he, ' have you not been up in arms?' ' Yes, and a great number
of men continue so to be.' ' And dont you call that disturb
ance?' returned Barretti. 'No,' said I, 'the Irish volunteers
have demeaned themselves very peaceably, and instead of
disturbing the peace of the country, have contributed much
to its preservation4.' The Doctor, who had been long silent,
1 Rev. Philip Skelton, born near came to London to publish his Reve-
Lisburne, 1707; died in 1787. In lation examined with Candour. He
1750 he obtained the living of Pel- died at Bath in 1768. Ib. p. 155.
tigo, in Donegal. Here, in a time of Johnson praised his Observations on
scarcity, he even sold his library to Swift. Life, iii. 249.
supply his indigent parishioners with 3 This word is not in Johnson's
bread. His works are in 7 vols. 8vo. Dictionary.
Universal Biography, quoted by the 4 Horace Walpole thus describes
editor of Campbell's Diary, p. 154. public affairs in February, 1779:—
2 Patrick Delany, friend of Dr. 'The navy disgusted, insurrections
Swift, born about 1686. In 1731 he in Scotland, Wales mutinous, a re
turned
the Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell. 55
turned a sharp ear to what I was saying, and with vehemence
said, ' What Sir, dont you call it disturbance to oppose legal
government with arms in your hands, and compel it to make
laws in your favour ? Sir, I call it rebellion ; rebellion as much
as the rebellion of Scotland.' ' Doctor,' said I, ' I am sorry to
hear that fall from you, I must however say that the Irish
consider themselves as the most loyal of His Majesty's subjects,
at the same time that they firmly deny any allegiance to a British
Parliament. They have a separate Legislature, and that they
have never showed any inclination to resist/ * Sir/ says the Doctor,
' you do owe allegiance to the British Parliament as a conquered
nation x, and had I been Minister I would have made you submit
to it. I would have done as Oliver Cromwell did ; I would
have burned your cities, and wasted you in the fires (or flames)
of them 2/ I, after allowing the Doctor to vent his indignation
upon Ireland, cooly replyed, •' Doctor, the times are altered, and
I dont find that you have succeeded so well in burning the
cities, and roasting the inhabitants of America/ ' Sir/ says he
gravely, and with a less vehement tone, ' what you say is true,
the times are altered, for power is now nowhere, we live under
a government of influence, not of power 3 ; but Sir, had we
bellion ready to break out in Ireland penalties, as rebels, was monstrous
where 15,000 Protestants were in injustice. King William was not
arms, without authority, for their their lawful sovereign ; he had not
own defence, many of them well- been acknowledged by the Parlia-
wishers to the Americans, and all so ment of Ireland when they appeared
ruined that they insisted on relief in arms against him." ' Life, ii. 255.
from Parliament, or were rea4y to 2 'Johnson severely reprobated the
throw off subjection/ Journal of the barbarous debilitating policy of the
Reign of George ///, ii. 339. British government [in Ireland],
1 On May 7, 1773, 'bursting forth which, he said, was the most detest-
with a generous indignation he said, able method of persecution. To a
" The Irish are in a most unnatural gentleman who hinted such policy
state ; for we see there Jhe minority might be necessary to support the
prevailing over the majority. There authority of the English government
is no instance, even in the ten perse- he replied by saying, " Let the au-
cutions, of such severity as that which thority of the English government
the Protestants of Ireland have exer- perish rather than be maintained by
cised against the Catholicks. Did we iniquity.'" Ib. ii. 121.
tell them we have conquered them, 3 Boswell, arguing with Johnson
it would be above board : to punish on Sept. 23, 1777, says : — * I insisted
them by confiscation and other that America might be very well
treated
Anecdotes by
treated the Americans as we ought, and as they deserved, we
should have at once razed all their towns, and let them
enjoy their forests .' After this wild rant, argument would
but have enraged him, I therefore let him vibrate into calmness,
then turning round to me, he, with a smile, says, * After all Sir,
though I hold the Irish to be rebels, I dont think they have
been so very wrong, but you know that you compelled our
Parliament, by force of arms, to pass an act in your favour.
That, I call rebellion/ ' But Doctor,' said I, ' did the Irish claim
anything that ought not to have been granted, though they
had not made the claim.' { Sir, I wont dispute that matter with
you, but what I insist upon is that the mode of requisition was
rebellious.' * Well Doctor, let me ask you but one question,
and I shall ask you no more on this subject, do you think that
Ireland would have obtained what it has got by any other
means?' 'Sir,' says he candidly, 'I believe it would not.
However, a wise government should not grant even a claim
of justicerif an attempt is made to extort it by force1.' I said
no more 2.
governed, and made.to yield sufficient
revenue by the means of influence,
as exemplified in Ireland, while the
people might be pleased with the
imagination of their participating of
the British constitution, by having
a body of representatives without
whose consent money could not be
extracted from them.' Life, iii. 205.
For influence see Ib. iii. 205, n. 4,
and Letters, i. 107, n. I.
When in March, 1782, Lord
North's government was overthrown,
Johnson said :— ' I am glad the Minis
try is removed. Such a bunch of
imbecility never disgraced a country.'
Life, iv. 139.
1 Johnson wrote on Aug. 4, 1782 : —
* Perhaps no nation not absolutely
conquered has declined so much in
so short a time. We seem to be
sinking. Suppose the Irish, having
already gotten a free trade and an
independent Parliament, should say
we will have a King and ally our
selves with the house of Bourbon,
what could be done to hinder or to
overthrow them.' Letters, ii. 264.
2 Campbell published the following
account of this conversation in his
Strictures on the History of Ireland,
ed. 1789, p. 336: — 'This considera
tion was vehemently urged against
me by Dr. Johnson, in a conversation
I once held with him respecting the
affairs of this country (Ireland). The
conversation appeared to my dear
friend Dr. Wilkinson (to whom I re
peated it within an hour or two after
it passed) so extraordinary that he
gave me pen, ink and paper to set it
down immediately. But first let me
premise a circumstance or two. —
Having spent the winter of the year
1777 in London, I had been honoured
(and it is my pride to acknowledge it)
with his familiarity and friendship.
I had not seen him from that time
the Rev. Dr. Thomas Campbell.
57
till the nth of June, 1781, when I
went to pay him a morning visit.
I found him alone, and nothing but
mutual enquiries respecting mutual
friends had passed, when Barretti
came in. Barretti, more curious than
the Doctor, soon asked me if the
Disturbances in Ireland were over.
The question, I own, surprized me,
as I had left all things quiet, and was
not at first altogether aware of the
tendency of his question. I therefore
in return asked what disturbances he
meant, for that I had heard of none.
"What!" said he, "have you not
been in arms ?" To which I answered
< categorically, "Yes ! and many bodies
of men continue so to be." "And
don't you call this Disturbance ? " re
joined Barretti. " No ! " said I, "the
Irish volunteers have demeaned them
selves very peaceably," ' &c.
[Here follows a long explanation
of the volunteers which I omit.]
' Dr. Johnson, who all this while sat
silent, but with a very attentive ear to
what passed, at length turned to me
with an apparent indignation which
I had never before experienced from
him.'
Here follows Johnson's speech in
much the same words as in the text,
except that ' wasted in the flames ' is
' roasted in the flames.' Wasted
probably is a misprint. Campbell
continues : — * After this explosion I
perhaps warmly replied' [In the text
Campbell 'cooly replyed ']. Johnson
continues as in the text, but adds : —
4 in a jocular way, repeating what he
before said, " when we should have
roasted the Americans as rebels we
only whipped them as children, and
we did not succeed because my
advice was not taken." ' The con
versation ends with his saying: —
1 Why, Sir, I don't know but I might
have acted as you did, had I been
an Irishman; but I speak as an
Englishman.'
ANECDOTES
FROM PENNINGTON'S MEMOIRS OF
MRS. CARTER
MRS. CARTER always spoke in high terms of Dr. Johnson's
constant attendance to religious duties, and the soundness of his
moral principles. In one of their latest conversations she was
expressing this opinion of him to himself ; he took her by the
hand, and said with much eagerness ; ' You know this to be true,
and testify it to the world when I am gone.' Vol. i. p. 41.
The following epigram by Dr. Johnson, found among Mrs.
Carter's poems, in his own hand-writing has never, I believe,
been published before.
'Quid mihi cum cultu? Probitas inculta nitescit,
Et juvat Ingenii vita sine arte rudis.
Ingenium et mores si pulchra probavit Elisa,
Quid majus inihi spes ambitiosa dabit1?'
Vol. i. p. 398.
To these parties [at Mrs. Montagu's and Mrs. Vesey's] it was
not difficult for any person of character to be introduced. There
was no ceremony, no cards and no supper. Even dress was so
little regarded, that a foreign gentleman, who was to go there with
an acquaintance, was told in jest that it was so little necessary
that he might appear there, if he pleased, in blue stockings. This
he understood in the literal sense ; and when he spoke of it in
French called it the Bas Bleu meeting. And this was the origin
1 For his other epigrams to her, see Life, i. 122, 140, and Works, i. 170.
of
Anecdotes from Pennington's Memoirs. 59
of the ludicrous appellation of the Blue Stocking Club, since
given to these meetings, and so much talked of1.
Nothing could be more agreeable, nor indeed more instructive,
than these parties. Mrs. Vesey2 had the almost magic art of
putting all her company at their ease, without the least appear
ance of design. Here was no formal circle to petrify an unfor
tunate stranger on his entrance; no rules of conversation to
observe; no holding forth of one to his own distress, and the
stupefying of his audience, no reading of his works by the author.
The company naturally broke into little groups, perpetually
varying and changing3. They talked or were silent, sat or
walked about, just as they pleased. Nor was it absolutely
necessary even to talk sense. There was no bar to harmless
mirth and gaiety : and while perhaps Dr. Johnson in one corner
held forth on the moral duties, in another, two or three young
people might be talking of the fashions and the Opera ; and in
a third Lord Orford (then Mr. Horace Walpole) might be
amusing a little group around him with his lively wit and
intelligent conversation 4.
1 For another explanation of the
name, see Life, iv. 108.
1 Blue-stocking. Wearing blue
worsted (instead of black silk) stock
ings ; hence, not in full dress, in
homely dress (contemptuous]. Ap
plied to the " Little Parliament " of
1653, with reference to the puritani
cally plain or mean attire of its mem
bers. Applied depreciatively to the
assemblies that met at Montagu
House, and those who frequented
them or imitated them. Hence of
women : Having or affecting literary
tastes. Transferred sneeringly to any
woman showing a taste for learning.
Much used by reviewers of the first
quarter of the nineteenth century ;
but now, from the general change of
opinion on the education of women,
nearly abandoned.' New English
Dictionary.
Wraxall (Memoirs, ed. 1815, i. 140)
says that the Blue Stockings ' formed
a very numerous, powerful, compact
phalanx in the midst of London.'
* Lord Jeffrey said that there was
no objection to the blue-stocking,
provided the petticoat came low
enough down.' Cockburn's Memoirs,
ed. 1856, p. 268.
2 Life, iii. 424-6. Hannah More's
Bas Bleu is addressed to her.
3 According to Miss Burney, ' Lord
Harcourt said, " Mrs. Vesey's fear
of ceremony is really troublesome ;
for her eagerness to break a circle is
such that she insists upon every
body's sitting with their backs one to
another ; that is, the chairs are
drawn into little parties of three
together in a confused manner all
over the room." ' Mme. D'Arblay's
Diary, i. 184.
4 Life, iii. 425, n. 3.
Now
60 Anecdotes from Pennington's Memoirs.
Now and then perhaps Mrs. Vesey might call the attention
of the company in general to some circumstance of news, politics,
or literature, of peculiar importance ; or perhaps to an anecdote,
or interesting account of some person known to the company in
general. Of this last kind a laughable circumstance occurred
about the year 1778, when Mrs. Carter was confined to her bed
with a fever, which was thought to be dangerous. She was
attended by her brother-in-law, Dr. Douglas, then a physician in
Town, and he was in the habit of sending bulletins of the state
of her health to her most intimate friends, with many of
whom he was well acquainted himself. At one of Mrs. Vesey 's
parties a note was brought to her, which she immediately saw
was from Dr. Douglas. 'Oh!' said she, before she opened it,
'this contains an account of our dear Mrs. Carter. We are all
interested in her health : Dr. Johnson, pray read it out for the
information of the company.' There was a profound silence ;
and the Doctor, with the utmost gravity, read aloud the
physician's report of the happy effect which Mrs. Carter's
medicines had produced, with a full and complete account of
the circumstances attending them. Vol. i. p. 465.
ANECDOTES BY JOSEPH CRADOCK^
THE first time I dined in company with Dr. Johnson was at
T. Davies's2, Russell Street, Covent Garden, as mentioned by
Mr. Boswell, in his Life of Johnson*. On mentioning my
engagement previously to a friend, he said, ' Do you wish to be
well with Johnson?' 'To be sure, Sir,' I replied, 'or I should
not have taken any pains to have been introduced into his
company.5 'Why then, Sir,' says he, 'let me offer you some
advice: you must not leave him soon after dinner to go to
the play; during dinner he will be rather silent — it is a very
years after this dinner Johnson wrote
to Mrs. Montagu :— ' Poor Davies,
the bankrupt bookseller, is soliciting
his friends to collect a small sum for
the repurchase of part of his house
hold stuff.3 Letters, ii. 64.
3 < On Friday, April 12 [1776], I
dined with him at our friend Tom
Davies's, where we met Mr. Cradock,
of Leicestershire, authour ofZobeide,
a tragedy ; a very pleasing gentleman ;
and Dr. Harwood, who has written
and published various works ; par
ticularly a fantastical translation of
the New Testament, in modern
phrase, and with a Socinian twist.'
Life, iii. 38.
* There is a new tragedy at Covent
Garden, called Zobeide, which, I am
told, is very indifferent, though
written by a country-gentleman.'
Walpole's Letters, v. 356.
serious
1 * From Mr. Cradock's Memoirs.
\Literary Memoirs, 4 vols. London,
1828.] These anecdotes are certainly
very loose and inaccurate ; but as
they have been republished in the
Gentleman's Magazine for January,
1828, "with some corrections and
additions from the author's MS.,"
I think it right to notice them ; and,
as they profess to be there enlarged
from the MS., I copy this latter ver
sion, which differs, in some points,
from the memoirs.' — Croker, ix. 236.
Croker does not always follow the
version in the Gentlemaris Magazine.
2 Life, i. 390.
Dr. Campbell said of Davies : — ' he
was not a bookseller, but a gentleman
dealing in books.' Nichols's Lit.
Anec. vi. 429 n. Perhaps he was too
much of a gentleman, and too little
of a tradesman, for less than two
62 Anecdotes by Joseph Cradock.
serious business with him x ; between six and seven he will look
about him, and see who remains, and, if he then at all likes the
party, he will be very civil and communicative. He exactly
fulfilled what my friend had prophesied. Mrs. Davies 2 did the
honours of the table : she was a favourite with Johnson, who sat
betwixt her and Dr. Harwood ; I sat next, below, to Mr. Boswell
opposite. Nobody could bring Johnson forward more civilly or
properly than Davies. The subject of conversation turned upon
the tragedy of CEdipus*. This was particularly interesting to
me, as I was then employed in endeavouring to make such
alterations in Dryden's play 4, as to make it suitable to a revival
at Drury Lane theatre. Johnson did not seem to think
favourably of it ; but I ventured to plead, that Sophocles
wrote it expressly for the theatre, at the public cost, and that
it was one of the most celebrated dramas of all antiquity.
Johnson said, * CEdipus was a poor miserable man, subjected to
the greatest distress, without any degree of culpability of his
own.' I urged, that Aristotle, as well as most of the Greek
poets, were [sic] partial to this character ; that Addison considered
that, as terror and pity were particularly excited, he was the
properest5 here Johnson suddenly becoming loud, I paused,
1 'When at table he was totally him to talk, for which it was often
absorbed in the business of the necessary to employ some address." '
moment ; his looks seemed rivetted Ib. iii. 39. Boswell does not mention
to his plate ; nor would he, unless any talk about CEdipus.
when in very high company, say one 4 l CEdipus is a tragedy formed by
word, or even pay the least attention Dryden and Lee in conjunction, from
to what was said by others, till he the works of Sophocles, Seneca and
had satisfied his appetite.' Life, Corneille. Dryden planned the
i. 468. scenes and composed the first and
2 Ib. i. 391, n. 2, 484. third acts.' Johnson's Works, vii.
* I am strongly affected by Mrs. 269.
Davies's tenderness/ Johnson wrote 5 Addison quotes Aristotle's obser-
to her husband. Ib. iv. 231. vation — 'if we see a man of virtue,
3 ' I introduced ' (writes Boswell) mixt with infirmities, fall into any
' Aristotle's doctrine in his Art of misfortune, it does not only raise our
Poetry, of " the KaOapats T&V iraOr)- pity, but our terror ; because we are
fidroav, the purging of the passions," afraid that the like misfortune may
as the purpose of tragedy. " But happen to ourselves, who resemble
how are the passions to be purged the character of the suffering person.'
by terrour and pity ? said I, with an The Spectator, No. 273. See also
assumed air of ignorance, to incite ib. No. 297.
and
Anecdotes by Joseph Cradock. 63
and rather apologized that it might not become me, perhaps,
too strongly to contradict Dr. Johnson. ' Nay, Sir,' replied he,
hastily, 'if I had not wished to have heard your arguments,
I should not have disputed with you at all.' All went on quite
pleasantly afterwards. We sat late, and something being men
tioned about my going to Bath, when taking leave, Johnson very
graciously said, ' I should have a pleasure in meeting you there V
Either Boswell or Davies immediately whispered to me. 'You're
landed2.'
The next time I had the pleasure of meeting him was at the
Literary Club dinner at the coffee-house in St. James's Street 3,
to which I was introduced by my partial friend, Dr. Percy.
Johnson that day was not in very good humour. We rather
waited for dinner. Garrick came late, and apologized that he
had been to the House of Lords, and Lord Camden insisted
on conveying him in his carriage 4. Johnson said nothing, but
he looked a volume. The party was numerous. 1 sat next
Mr. Burke at dinner. There was a beef-steak pie placed just
before us ; and I remarked to Mr. Burke that something smelt
very disagreeable, and looked to see if there was not a dog
under the table. Burke with great good humour said, ' I believe,
Sir, I can tell you what is the cause ; it is some of my country
1 Three days later Johnson went to breakfast with Garrick, who was very
Bath with the Thrales. Letters, i. 391. vain of his intimacy with Lord Cam-
2 ' My record upon this occasion den, he accosted me thus : — " Pray
does great injustice to Johnson's ex- now, did you — did you meet a little
pression, which was so forcible and lawyer turning the corner, eh?"-
brilliant, that Mr. Cradock whispered " No, Sir, (said I.) Pray what do
me, "O that his words were written you mean by the question?" — "Why,
in a book ! " ' Life, iii. 39. (replied Garrick, with an affected in-
When, thirteen years earlier, Bos- difference, yet as if standing on tip-
well was introduced to Johnson in the toe,) Lord Camden has this moment
same parlour, Davies said to him, as left me. We have had a long walk
he was leaving, 'Don't be uneasy, together." JOHNSON. "Well, Sir,
I can see he likes you very well.' Garrick talked very properly. Lord
Ib. i. 395. Camden was a little lawyer to be
3 Croker says that to this club no associating so familiarly with a
stranger is ever invited. Croker's player.'" Life, iii. 311.
Boswell, ix. 237 n. It met for some 'Lord Camden,' Bentham said,
time at Parsloe's, St. James's Street. ' was a hobbledy-hoy, and had no
4 ' I told Johnson ' (writes Boswell) polish of manners.' Bentham's
'that one morning, when I went to Works, x. 118.
butter
64 Anecdotes by Joseph Cradock.
butter in the crust that smells so disagreeably.' Dr. Johnson
just at this time, sitting opposite, desired one of us to send him
some of the beef-steak pie. We sent but little, which he soon
dispatched, and then returned his plate for more. Johnson
particularly disliked that any notice should be taken of what
he eat1, but Burke ventured to say he was glad to find that
Dr. Johnson was anywise able to relish the beef-steak pie.
Johnson, not perceiving what he alluded to, hastily exclaimed,
' Sir, there is a time of life when a man requires the repairs of the
table ! ' The company rather talked for victory than social
intercourse. I think it was in consequence of what passed that
evening, that Dr. Goldsmith wrote his Retaliation 2. Mr. Richard
Burke was present, talked most, and seemed to be the most free
and easy of any of the company3. I had never met him
before. Burke seemed desirous of bringing his relative forward.
In Mr. Chalmers's account of Goldsmith, different sorts of liquor
are offered as appropriate to each guest. To the two Burkes
ale from Wicklow, and wine from Ferney to me : my name is in
italics, as supposing I am a wine-bibber ; but the author's
allusion to the wines of Ferney was meant for me, I rather think,
from my having taken a plan of a tragedy from Voltaire.
Mrs. Percy, afterwards nurse to the Duke of Kent4, at
Buckingham House, told me that Johnson once stayed near
a month with them at their dull parsonage at Easton Mauduit 5 ;
that Dr. Percy looked out all sorts of books to be ready
x Boswell says that on their tour Richard,' thus described in Retalia
te the Highlands he contrived ' that tion : —
Dr. Johnson should not be asked * What spirits were his ! what wit
twice to eat or drink anything and what whim !
(which always disgusts him).' Life, Now breaking a jest, and now
v. 264. breaking a limb !
2 Cradock first met Johnson in Now wrangling and grumbling to
1776, more than two years after keep up the ball !
Goldsmith's death. Such a blunder Now teasing and vexing, yet laugh-
as this shows that not much trust ing at all ! '
can be placed in his anecdotes. Ac- 4 Letters, \. 414, n. 2. The Duke of
cording to Cumberland (Memoirs, i. Kent was the father of Queen Victoria.
369) it was at the St. James's Coffee s Johnson spent with the Percies
House that the dinner took place part of June, July, and August of
which led to Retaliation. 1764. Life, i. 486, and/^J/ in Percy's
3 Edmund Burke's brother, ' honest Anecdotes. ' The little terrace in the
for
Anecdotes by Joseph Cradock. 65
for his amusement after breakfast, and that Johnson was so
attentive and polite to her, that, when Dr. Percy mentioned the
literature proposed in the study, he said, ' No, Sir, I shall first
wait upon Mrs. Percy to feed the ducks.' But those halcyon
days were about to change, — not as to Mrs. Percy, for to the
last she remained a favourite with him.
I happened to be in London once when Dr. Percy returned
from Northumberland, and found that he was expected to
preach a charity sermon almost immediately. This had escaped
his memory, and he said, that, though much fatigued, he had
been obliged to sit up very late to furnish out something from
former discourses; but, suddenly recollecting that Johnson's
fourth Idler was exactly to his purpose, he had freely engrafted
the greatest part of it. He preached, and his discourse was much
admired; but being requested to print it, he most strenuously
opposed the honour intended him. till he was assured by the
governors, that it was absolutely necessary, as the annual con
tributions greatly depended on the account that was given in
the appendix. In this dilemma, he earnestly requested that I
would call upon Dr. Johnson, and state particulars. I assented,
and endeavoured to introduce the subject with all due solemnity;
but Johnson was highly diverted with his recital, and, laughing,
said, * Pray, Sir, give my kind respects to Dr. Percy, and tell
him, I desire he will do whatever he pleases in regard to my
Idler ; it is entirely at his service V
garden [of the vicarage] is still called Diary, v. 256. It was Miss Percy
Dr. Johnson's walk.' Wheatley's whom, when a little girl, Johnson set
Percy's Religues, i. Preface, p. 75. down from his knee, telling her that
Miss Burney wrote in 1781 or he did not care one farthing for her
1782 : — * Mrs. Percy is a vulgar, fus- as she had not read Pilgrim's Pro-
socking, proud woman ; but very civil gress. Life, ii. 238, n. 5.
to us. Miss Percy is among the very * This sermon, I have no doubt,
well? Early Diary of F. Burney, ii. was the one preached before the Sons
297. In 1 79 1 she wrote : — 'Mrs.Percy of the Clergy on May n, 1769;
is very uncultivated and ordinary published by J. and F. Rivington, a
in manners and conversation, but a copy of which is in the Bodleian
good creature, and much delighted Library. Johnson's thoughts are
to talk over the Royal Family, to one borrowed, but not his words,
of whom she was formerly a nurse. This sermon was preached seven
Miss Percy is a natural and very years before Cradock first met
pleasing character.' Mme. D'Arblay's Johnson.
VOL. II. F But
66
Anecdotes by Joseph Cradock.
But these days of friendly communication were, from various
causes, speedily to pass away, and worse than indifference to
succeed ; for, one morning Dr. Percy said to Mr. Cradock,
1 1 have not seen Dr. Johnson for a long time. I believe I must
just call upon him, and greatly wish that you would accompany
me. I intend,' said he, 'to tease him a little about Gibbon's
pamphlet.' ' I hope not, Dr. Percy,' was my reply. ' Indeed
I shall ; for I have a great pleasure in combating his narrow
prejudices.' We went together; and Dr. Percy opened with
some anecdote from Northumberland House x, mentioned some
rare books that were in the library ; and then threw out that the
town rang with applause of Gibbon's Reply to Davis]' that
the latter 'had written before he had read,' and that the two
* confederate doctors,' as Mr. Gibbon termed them, c had fallen
into some strange errors 2.' Johnson said, he knew nothing of
1 He had an apartment in North
umberland House, ' in which,' says
Boswell, ' I have passed many an
agreeable hour.3 Life, iii. 420, n. 5.
2 H. E. Davis, a Bachelor of Arts
of Oxford, published in 1778 An
Examination of the \$th and \6th
Chapters of Mr. Gibbon's History.
Gibbon, in A Vindication, answered
at the same time the attacks of two
Doctors of Divinity — Randolph and
Chelsum. He describes how, 'op
pressed with the same yoke, covered
with the same trappings, they heavily
move along, perhaps not with an
equal pace, in the same beaten track
of prejudice and preferment. ... It
was the misfortune of Mr. Davis that
he undertook to write before he
had read. But the two confederate
doctors appear to be scholars of a
higher form and longer experience ;
they enjoy a certain rank in their
academical world ; and as their zeal
is enlightened by some rays of know
ledge, so their desire to ruin the
credit of their adversary is occasion
ally checked by the apprehension of
injuring their own.' Gibbon's Misc.
Works, iv. 604.
Gibbon, in his Autobiography (ib.
i. 231) writes : — ' At the distance of
twelve years I calmly affirm my
judgment of Davis, Chelsum, &c.
A victory over such antagonists was
a sufficient humiliation. They, how
ever, were rewarded in this world.
Poor Chelsum was, indeed, neglected
. . . but I enjoyed the pleasure of
giving a royal pension to Mr. Davis.'
Ib. i. 231.
Horace Walpole wrote to Gibbon
(Letters, vii. 158):— 'Davis and his
prototypes tell you Middleton, &c.
have used the same objections, and
they have been confuted j answering,
in the theologic dictionary, signifying
confuting?
'How utterly,' wrote Macaulay,
' all the attacks on Gibbon's History
are forgotten ! this of Whitaker ;
Randolph's ; Chelsum's ; Davies's ;
that stupid beast Joseph Milner's ;
even Watson's.' Trevelyan's Mac
aulay, ed. 1877, ii. 285.
Davis's
Anecdotes by Joseph Cradock. 67
Davis's pamphlet, nor would he give him any answer as to
Gibbon ; but, if the ' confederate doctors,' as they were termed,
had really made such mistakes as he had alluded to, they were
blockheads. Dr. Percy talked on in the most careless style
possible, but in a very lofty tone T ; and Johnson appeared to
be excessively angry. I only wished to get released : for, if
Dr. Percy had proceeded to inform him that he had lately intro
duced Mr. Hume to dine at the King's chaplains' table, there
must have been an explosion 2.
Afterwards Percy rather loftily mentioned that he knew that
the Duke of Northumberland would have a pleasure in lending
him any books from his library. 'And if the offer is made,
Sir,' Johnson only coldly replied, ' from a good motive it is very
well ; ' and some time after, turning to me, said with a sigh :
' Many offer me crusts now, but I have no teeth to bite them.'
With all my partiality for Johnson, I freely declare, that
I think Dr. Percy received very great cause to take real offence
at one, who, by a ludicrous parody on a stanza in the Hermit of
Warkwortk, had rendered him contemptible. It was urged,
1 If this story is true a strange and while Boswell wrote of him : — ' He
sudden change had come over Percy. is an ugly, affected, disgusting fellow,
It was less than a year earlier that and poisons our Literary Club to
Boswell's ' friendly scheme ' obtained me.' Life, iv. 73. Malone, writing
for him from Johnson a letter of ex- on Feb. 20, 1794, about the loss of
planation of which he said :— * I would Gibbon to the club by death, says : —
rather have this than degrees from ' Independent of his literary merit,
all the Universities in Europe.' In as a companion Gibbon was un
it Johnson wrote : — ' Percy is a man commonly agreeable. He had an
whom I never knew to offend any immense fund of anecdote and of
one.' Life, iii. 276, 278. erudition of various kinds, both
2 Gibbon's Vindication is dated ancient and modern ; and had ac-
Feb. 3, 1779; Hume died on Aug. quired such a facility and elegance of
25> 1776. Percy, writing to Hume talk that I had always great pleasure
in 1772, describes himself 'as not in listening to him. The manner and
unknown to you when you resided voice, though they were peculiar,
in London.' Letters of Eminent and I believe artificial at first, did
Persons to David Hume, p. 317. not at all offend, for they had become
Gibbon, who belonged to the so appropriated as to appear natural.'
Literary Club, was disliked by John- Hist. MSS. Com., Thirteenth Report,
son and Boswell. ' Johnson talked App. viii. 230.
with some disgust of his ugliness ' ;
F 2 that
68 Anecdotes by Joseph Cradock.
that Johnson only meant to attack the metre ; but he certainly
turned the whole poem into ridicule : —
* I put my hat upon my head,
And walk'd into the Strand,
And there I met another man
With his hat in his hand1.'
Mr. Garrick, in a letter to me, soon afterwards asked me,
' Whether I had seen Johnson's criticism on the Hermit ; it is
already,' said he, ' over half the town.' Almost the last time
that I ever saw Johnson, he said to me, * Notwithstanding all the
pains that Dr. Farmer and I took to serve Dr. Percy, in regard
to his Ancient Ballads, he has left town for Ireland 2, without
taking leave of either of us.'
Admiral Walsingham, who sometimes resided at Windsor,
and sometimes in Portugal Street, frequently boasted that he
was the only man to bring together miscellaneous parties, and
make them all agreeable ; and, indeed, there never before was
so strange an assortment as I have occasionally met there. At
one of his dinners were the Duke of Cumberland 3, Dr. Johnson,
1 The Hermit was published in who took the name of Walsingham ;
1771. There is no stanza of which but it is hardly possible that Dr.
this is a close parody, so far as the Johnson should have met the Duke
words are concerned. The nearest of Cumberland at dinner without
is the third : — Mr. Boswell's having mentioned it.'
4 With hospitable haste he rose, Croker's Bosivell, ix. 242 n. Mr.
And wak'd his sleeping fire ; Croker forgets that there are men
And snatching up a lighted brand who can dine with a Duke and not
Forth hied the reverend sire.' boast of it.
2 Percy was made Bishop of Dro- ' Having observed the vain osten-
more in 1782. According to Dr. tatious importance of many people
Anderson (Life of Johnson, 3rd ed., in quoting the authority of Dukes
p. 252), * Percy from a high sense of and Lords, as having been in their
duty constantly resided there. The company, Dr. Johnson said, he went
episcopal palace, which none of his to the other extreme, and did not
predecessors had inhabited, and the mention his authority when he should
demesne, formerly rude and un- have done it, had it noi been of a
cultivated, owe to him their magnifi- Duke or a Lord.' Life, iv. 183.
cence and picturesque beauty.' Boswell accused him of making 'but
3 ' It is possible,' writes Mr. Croker, an awkward return ' in leaving in his
'Dr. Johnson may have been ac- Lives of the Poets l an acknowledge-
quainted with the Hon. Robert Boyle, ment unappropriated to his Grace,'
Mr.
Anecdotes by Joseph Cradock. 69
Mr. Nairn, the optician T, and Mr. Leoni, the singer : at another,
Dr. Johnson, &c., and a young dashing officer, who determined,
he whispered, to attack the old bear that we seemed all to stand
in awe of. There was a good dinner, and during that important
time Johnson was deaf to all impertinence. However, after the
wine had passed rather freely, the young gentleman was resolved
to bait him, and venture out a little further. ' Now, Dr. John
son, do not look so glum, but be a little gay and lively, like
others : what would you give, old gentleman, to be as young
and sprightly as I am ? ' ' Why, Sir,' said he, * I think I would
almost be content to be as foolish V
Johnson, it is well known, professed to recruit his acquaintance
with younger persons 3, and, in his latter days, I, with a few
others, were \sic\ more frequently honoured by his notice. At
times he was very gloomy, and would exclaim, ' Stay with me,
for it is a comfort to me' — a comfort that any feeling mind
would wish to administer to a man so kind, though at times so
boisterous, when he seized your hand, and repeated, 'Ay, Sir, but
to die and go we know not where4,' &c. — here his morbid melan
choly prevailed, and Garrick never spoke so impressively to the
heart. Yet, to see him in the evening (though he took nothing
stronger than lemonade 5), a stranger would have concluded that
our morning account was a fabrication. No hour was too late
the Duke of Newcastle. Life, iv. 63. curious to electricians, are painful to
Neither Boswell nor any of Johnson's the humane.'
biographers knew of his second inter- 2 In a book entitled Lord Chester-
view with the king. Ib. ii. 42, n. 2. field's Witticisms, 1774, p. 53, this
The Admiral must, indeed, have story is assigned to Quin.
been happy in his son, for Mr. Croker 3 ' He said to Sir Joshua Reynolds,
says : — ' I have heard George IV " If a man does not make new ac-
speak most highly of this young quaintance as he advances through
Boyle Walsingham.' Walpole's Z<?/- life, he will soon find himself left
ters, viii. 502 n. alone. A man, Sir, should keep his
1 In the Gentleman's Magazine, friendship in constant repair" ' Life,
1774, p. 472, is an account of ' Elec- i. 300.
trical Experiments by Mr. Edward 4 Ante, i 439.
Nairne, made with a Machine of his 5 See post, p. 100, where 'about five
own Workmanship.' The writer says, in the morning Johnson's face shone
'the discharges of an electrical battery with meridian splendour, though his
at ducks, cocks, and turkeys, however drink had been only lemonade.'
to
70 Anecdotes by Joseph Cradock.
to keep him from the tyranny of his own gloomy thoughts.
A gentleman venturing to say to Johnson, ' Sir, I wonder some
times that you condescend so far as to attend a city club.' ' Sir,
the great chair of a full and pleasant club is, perhaps, the throne
of human felicity1.'
I had not the honour to be at all intimate with Johnson till
about the time he began to publish his Lives of the Poets ; and
how he got through that arduous labour is, in some measure,
still a mystery to me : he must have been greatly assisted by
booksellers 2. I had some time before lent him Euripides with
Milton's manuscript notes : this, though he did not minutely
examine (see Joddrel's Euripides), yet he very handsomely re
turned it, and mentioned it in his Life of Milton 3. In the
course of conversation one day I dropped out to him, that Lord
Harborough (then the Rev.4) was in possession of a very valu
able collection of manuscript poems, and that amongst them
there were two or three in the handwriting of King James I ;
that they were bound up handsomely in folio, and were entitled
Sackvilles Poems. These he solicited me to borrow for him,
and Lord Harborough very kindly intrusted them to me for
his perusal.
Harris's Hermes was mentioned. I said, ' I think the book
is too abstruse ; it is heavy.' ' It is ; but a work of that kind
1 Cradock misquotes Hawkins communication, and must have Ham-
(post, p. 91) — 'A tavern chair is mond again. Mr. Johnson would be
the throne of human felicity.' See glad of Blackmore's Essays for a few
also Life, ii. 452. days.' Id. ii. 159.
2 Cradock, I suppose, means that 3 'HisZswrz^dfons by Mr. Cradock' s
they lent him books, and supplied kindness now in my hands ; the mar-
him with facts, and not as Mr. Croker gin is sometimes noted, but I have
thinks (ix. 243 n.) that they assisted found nothing remarkable.' Works,
him in his manuscript. Thus he vii. 114.
writes to John Nichols desiring that 4 When Johnson was writing the
* some volumes published of Prior's Lives the Rev. Robert Sherard was
papers in two vols. 8vo. may be pro- Earl of Harborough, for it was in
cured.' Letters, ii. 130. Another 1770 that he succeeded his brother,
day he writes: — 'Mr. Johnson is who, in spite of marrying four times,
obliged to Mr. Nicol [sic] for his left no heir. Burke's Peerage.
must
Anecdotes by Joseph Cradock. 71
must be heavy V * A rather dull man of my acquaintance asked
me,' said I, 'to lend him some book to entertain him, and
I offered him Harris's Hermes, and as I expected, from the title,
he took it for a novel ; when he returned it, I asked him how he
liked it, and, what he thought of it? "Why, to speak the truth,"
says he, " I was not much diverted ; I think all these imitations
of Tristram Shandy fall far short of the original!'" This had its
effect, and almost produced from Johnson a rhinocerous laugh 2.
One of Dr. Johnson's rudest speeches was to a pompous
gentleman coming out of Lichfield cathedral, who said, ' Dr.
Johnson, we have had a most excellent discourse to-day !' 'That
, may be,' said Johnson ; ' but, it is impossible that you should
know it.'
Of his kindness to me during the last years of his most
valuable life, I could enumerate many instances. One slight
circumstance, if any were wanting, would give an excellent proof
of the goodness of his heart, and that to a person whom he
found in distress. In such a case he was the very last man that
would have given even the least momentary uneasiness to any
one, had he been aware of it. The last time I saw him was just
before I went to France. He said, with a deep sigh, c I wish
I was going with you.' He had just then been disappointed of
going to Italy 3. Of all men I ever knew, Dr. Johnson was the
most instructive.
1 Ante, i. 187. described it drolly enough : " He
' For my own part, I like Harris's laughs like a rhinoceros." ' Life,
writings much. But Tooke thought ii. 378.
meanly of them: he would say, "Lord 3 Cradock started for Italy on
Malmesbury is as great a fool as his Oct. 29, 1783. Johnson was dis-
father" [Harris was the father of the appointed of going there in 1776.
first Earl of Malmesbury].' Rogers's Life, iii. 27. There was some project
Table Talk, p. 128. of his going in 1780 and 1781 (Let-
2 'Johnson's laugh was a kind of ters, ii. 191), and again in 1784.
good-humoured growl. Tom Davies Life, iv. 326.
ANECDOTES
BY RICHARD CUMBERLAND
[FROM Memoirs of Richard Cumberland, written by himself.
2 vols. London, 1807.
Johnson, writing to Mrs. Thrale, who was at Brighton, says : —
1 The want of company is an inconvenience, but Mr. Cumberland
is a million.' Letters, ii. in. There is nothing in Boswell to
show that Cumberland was much with Johnson. Northcote told
Hazlitt that Johnson and his friends ' never admitted him as one
of the set ; Sir Joshua did not invite him to dinner.' Conversations
of Northcote, p. 385.
Rogers described him as 'a most agreeable companion, and
a very entertaining converser. His theatrical anecdotes were
related with infinite spirit and humour/ Rogers's Table Talk,
p. 136.
'I once (says W. Maltby) dined at Billy's with Parr,
Priestley, Cumberland, and some other distinguished people.
Cumberland, who belonged to the family of the Blandishes, be-
praised Priestley to his face, and after he had left the party spoke
of him very disparagingly. This excited Parr's extremest wrath.
When I met him a few days after he said : — * Only think of
Mr. Cumberland ! that he should have presumed to talk before
me, — before me, Sir — in such terms of my friend Dr. Priestley !
Pray, Sir, let Mr. Dilly know my opinion of Mr. Cumberland —
that his ignorance is equalled only by his impertinence, and that
both are exceeded by his malice.' Ib. p. 314.
Sir Walter Scott thus writes of Cumberland : — * January 12,
1826.' — Mathews last night gave us a very perfect imitation of
old
Anecdotes by Richard Cumberland. 73
old Cumberland, who carried the poetic jealousy and irritability
farther than any man I ever saw. He was a great flatterer, too,
the old rogue. ... A very high-bred man in point of manners in
society.' Lockhart's Scott, ed. 1839, viii. 193.
In his Biographical Memoirs (ed. 1834, iii. 227) Scott adds :
* In the little pettish sub-acidify of temper which Cumberland
sometimes exhibited there was more of humorous sadness than
of ill-will, either to his critics or his contemporaries. . . . These
imperfections detract nothing from the character of the man of
worthj the scholar and the gentleman.'
For his jealousy see Letters, ii. 112, 115, 122. His grave in
Westminster Abbey is close to Johnson's.
His anecdotes must be received with great distrust. His
account of the dinner before the first night of She Stoops to
Conquer, at which Johnson took the chair, is so manifestly
{a romance' — to use Mr. Forster's words — that I have not
quoted it. See Cumberland's Memoirs, i. 367, and Forster's
Goldsmith, ed. 1871, ii. 339.]
WHO will say that Johnson himself would have been such
a champion in literature, such a front-rank soldier in the fields
of fame, if he had not been pressed into the service, and driven
on to glory with the bayonet of sharp necessity pointed at his
back ? If fortune had turned him into a field of clover, he would
have laid down and rolled in it. The mere manual labour of
writing would not have allowed his lassitude and love of ease to
have taken the pen out of the inkhorn 1, unless the cravings of
1 c I allow (said Johnson) you may than writing.' Mason's Gray, ii. 25.
have pleasure from writing, after it ' I am,' wrote Hume to Strahan,
is over, if you have written well ; ' perhaps the only author you ever
but you don't go willingly to it knew who gratuitously employed
again.' Life, iv, 219. great industry in correcting a work
' There is not a more painful action of which he has fully alienated
of the mind than invention.' Addison the property.' Letters of Hume to
in The Spectator, No. 487. Strahan, p. 183.
'His ditty sweet Of Pope, Johnson wrote: — 'To
He loathed much to write, ne make verses was his first labour,
cared to repeat.' and to mend them was his last. . . .
Castle of Indolence, canto i. stanza 68. He was one of those few whose
' Reading, Mr. Gray has often told labour is their pleasure.' Works,
me, was much more agreeable to him viii. 32 1. See also post, p. 90.
hunger
74 Anecdotes by Richard Cumberland.
hunger had reminded him that he must fill the sheet before he
saw the table cloth. He might indeed have knocked down
Osbourne for a blockhead, but he would not have knocked him
down with a folio of his own writing x. He would perhaps have
been the dictator of a club, and wherever he sat down to con
versation, there must have been that splash of strong bold
thought about him, that we. might still have had a collectanea
after his death ; but of prose I guess not much, of works of labour
none, of fancy perhaps something more, especially of poetry,
which, under favour, I consider was not his tower of strength.
I think we should have had his Rasselas at all events, for he
was likely enough to have written at Voltaire, and brought
the question to the test, if infidelity is any aid to wit2.
An orator he must have been; not improbably a parliamen
tarian, and, if such, certainly an oppositionist, for he preferred
to talk against the tide. He would indubitably have been no
member of the Whig Club, no partisan of Wilkes, no friend of
Hume, no believer in Macpherson ; he would have put up
prayers for early rising, and laid in bed all day, and with the
most active resolutions possible been the most indolent mortal
living. (Volume i. p. 353.)
Alas ! I am not fit to paint his character : nor is there
need of it; Etiam mortuus loquitur* \ every man, who can buy
a book, has bought a Boswell\ Johnson is known to all the
reading world. I also knew him well, respected him highly,
loved him sincerely: it was never my chance to see him in
those moments of moroseness and ill humour, which are im
puted to him, perhaps with truth, for who would slander him ?
But I am not warranted by any experience of those humours to
speak of him otherwise than of a friend, who always met me
with kindness, and from whom I never separated without regret.
— When I sought his company he had no capricious excuses for
withholding it, but lent himself to every invitation with cordiality,
and brought good humour with him, that gave life to the circle
1 Ante, i. 304, 381. dide. Life, i. 342 ; Letters, i. 79 n.
2 Cumberland wrongly thought 3 * He being dead yet speaketh.'
that Rasselas was an answer to Can- Heb. xi. 4.
he
Anecdotes by Richard Cumberland.
75
he was in. He presented himself always in his fashion of
apparel ; a brown coat with metal buttons, black waistcoat
and worsted stockings, with a flowing bob wig T was the style of
his wardrobe, but they were in perfectly good trim 2, and with
the ladies, which he generally met, he had nothing of the
slovenly philosopher about him ; he fed heartily, but not vora
ciously3, and was extremely courteous in his commendations of
any dish that pleased his palate ; he suffered his next neigh
bour to squeeze the China oranges4 into his wine glass after
dinner, which else perchance had gone aside, and trickled into
his shoes, for the good man had neither straight sight nor steady
nerves.
At the tea table he had considerable demands upon his
favourite beverage, and I remember when Sir Joshua Reynolds
at my house reminded him that he had drank eleven cups, he
replied — e Sir, I did not count your glasses of wine 5, why should
you number up my cups of tea ? ' And then laughing in perfect
good humour he added — ' Sir, I should have released the lady
1 Johnson defines a bobwig as a
short wig, so \\&& flowing seems an
inconsistent epithet.
2 Cumberland could only have
known him after his dress had been
improved by associating with the
Thrales. Life, iii. 325. Johnson
seems to show how regardless he
was of dress by his note on King
John, Act iv. sc. 2, where Hubert
describes a smith,
' Standing on slippers, which his
nimble haste
Had falsely thrust upon contrary
feet.'
On this Johnson remarks : —
' Shakespeare seems to have con
founded a man's shoes with his
gloves. He that is frighted or hurried
may put his hand into the wrong
glove, but either shoe will equally
admit either foot. The authour seems
to be disturbed by the disorder which
he describes.' Johnson's slippers were
his old shoes. Life, i. 396 ; ii. 406.
3 This is at variance with the ac
counts of Boswell (Life, i. 468 ; iv. 72)
and Hawkins (post, p. 105).
'Violent hunger, though upon
many occasions not only natural,
but unavoidable, is always indecent,
and to eat voraciously is universally
regarded as a piece of ill manners.'
Adam Smith's Moral Sentiments,
ed. 1801, i. 45.
4 Life, ii. 330.
5 Johnson wrote on Jan. 2 1, 1 775: —
' Reynolds has taken too much to
strong liquor, and seems to delight
in his new character.' Life, ii. 292.
'SiR JOSHUA. "You have sat by
quite sober, and felt an envy of the
happiness of those who were drink
ing." JOHNSON. "Perhaps con
tempt." ' Ib. iii. 41. ' SIR JOSHUA.
" At first the taste of wine was dis
agreeable to me ; but I brought my
self to drink it, that I might be like
other people.' Ib. iii. 329.
from
76 Anecdotes by Richard Cumberland.
from any further trouble, if it had not been for your remark ;
but you have reminded me that I want one of the dozen, and
I must request Mrs. Cumberland to round up my number — "
When he saw the readiness and complacency with which my
wife obeyed his call, he turned a kind and cheerful look upon
her and said — 'Madam, I must tell you for your comfort you
have escaped much better than a certain lady did awhile ago,
upon whose patience I intruded greatly more than I have done
on yours ; but the lady asked me for no other purpose but to
make a Zany of me, and set me gabbling to a parcel of people
I knew nothing of; so, Madam, I had my revenge of her; for
I swallowed five and twenty cups of her tea J, and did not treat
her with as many words.' I can only say my wife would have
made tea for him as long as the New River could have supplied
her with water.
It was on such occasions he was to be seen in his happiest
moments ; when animated by the cheering attention of friends,
whom he liked, he would give full scope to those talents for
narration, in which I verily think he was unrivalled both in the
brilliancy of his wit, the flow of his humour, and the energy of
his language. Anecdotes of times past, scenes of his own life,
and characters of humourists, enthusiasts, crack-brained pro
jectors and a variety of strange beings, that he had chanced
upon, when detailed by him at length, and garnished with those
episodical remarks, sometimes comic, sometimes grave, which
he would throw in with infinite fertility of fancy, were a treat,
which though not always to be purchased by five and twenty
cups of tea. I have often had the happiness to enjoy for less
than half the number. He was easily led into topics 2 ; it was
1 The number of the cups no doubt were at school in England wrote to
grew in the stories about Johnson, a friend in 1759: — * At Whitsuntide
Lord Eldon said that his wife ' had they used to make the housekeeper
herself helped him one evening to [of the school] the present of a guinea
fifteen cups.' Twiss's .Zf/*/072, ed. 1846, for a pound of tea.' Eliza Pinckney,
i. 65. See post, p. 105, n. 4, for by H. H. Ravenel, New York, 1896,
Lady Macleod's helping him to six- p. 181.
teen. Cumberland, at one bold leap, 2 For Johnson's not starting a sub-
raises the number to twenty-five, ject of talk see ante, i. 290 ; Life, iii.
For the price of tea see ante, i. 135. 307, n. 2 ; iv. 304, n. 4.
A South Carolinian lady whose sons
not
Anecdotes by Richard Cumberland. 77
not easy to turn him from them ; but who would wish it ? If
a man wanted to show himself off by getting up and riding upon
him, he was sure to run restive and kick him off; you might as
safely have backed Bucephalus, before Alexander had lunged1 him.
Neither did he always like to be over-fondled ; when a certain
gentleman out-acted his part in this way, he is said to have
demanded of him — * What provokes your risibility, Sir ? Have
I said anything that you understand? — Then I ask pardon of
the rest of the company — ' But this is Henderson's anecdote
of him, and I won't swear he did not make it himself2. The
following apology however I myself drew from him, when speak
ing of his tour I observed to him upon some passages as rather
•too sharp upon a country and people who had entertained him
so handsomely — 'Do you think so, Cumbey3?' he replied. —
( Then I give you leave to say, and you may quote me for it,
that there are more gentlemen in Scotland than there are
shoes V
The expanse of matter, which Johnson had found room for in
his intellectual storehouse, the correctness with which he had
assorted it, and the readiness with which he could turn to any
article that he wanted to make present use of5 were the pro
perties in him which I contemplated with the most admiration.
Some have called him a savage ; they were only so far right in
the resemblance, as that, like the savage, he never came into
suspicious company without his spear in his hand and his bow
and quiver at his back. In quickness of intellect few ever
equalled him, in profundity of erudition many have surpassed
him. I do not think he had a pure and classical taste, nor was
apt to be best pleased with the best authors 6, but as a general
1 To lunge is not in Johnson's great proportion of the people are
Dictionary. barefoot.' Letters, i. 239.
2 Cumberland tells it also in his 5 ' Sir Joshua observed to me the
Observer, No. 25. See Life, iv. 64, extraordinary promptitude with which
n. 2. John Henderson, the actor, Johnson flew upon an argument.'
no doubt is meant, who, as a mimic, Life, ii. 365.
1 did not represent Johnson correctly.' 6 Mrs. Carter's father wrote to her
Life, ii. 326, n. 5. of Johnson in 1738 :— ' 1 a little sus-
3 For Johnson's abbreviations of pect his judgment if he is very fond
his friends' names see Life, ii. 258. of Martial.' Pennington's Carter,
4 At Elgin he noted that ' a very i. 39.
scholar
78 Anecdotes by Richard Cumberland.
scholar he ranks very high. When I would have consulted him
upon certain points of literature, whilst I was making my collec
tions from the Greek dramatists for my essays in The Observer,
he candidly acknowledged that his studies had not lain amongst
them, and certain it is there is very little shew of literature in
his Ramblers, and in the passage, where he quotes Aristotle, he
has not correctly given the meaning of the original x. (Volume i.
P- 356.)
1 Rambler, No. 139.
EXTRACTS
FROM SIR JOHN HA WKINS'S LIFE
OF JOHNSON
, [ACCORDING to Miss Hawkins (Memoirs, i. 158) Strahan and
Cadell called on her father, in the name of the booksellers, ' who
meant to collect and publish Johnson's works, and had com
missioned them to ask him to write the Life, and to oversee the
whole publication. They offered him £200.'
For Boswell's account of Hawkins's book see Life, i. 26.
* Sir John Hawkins was originally bred a lawyer, in which
profession he did not succeed. Having married a gentlewoman
who by her brother's death proved a considerable fortune he
bought a house at Twickenham, intending to give himself up
to his studies and music, of which he was very fond. He now
commenced a justice of peace ; and being a very honest moral
man, but of no brightness, and very obstinate and contentious,
he grew hated by the lower class and very troublesome to the
gentry, with whom he went to law both on public and private
causes ; at the same time collecting materials indefatigably for
a History of Music.' Horace Walpole's Journal of the Reign
of George III, i. 421.
Horace Walpole, writing on Dec. 3, 1776, of Hawkins's History
of Music, says (Letters, vi. 395) : — ' I have been three days at
Strawberry and have not seen a creature but Sir John Hawkins's
five volumes, the two last of which, thumping as they are,
I literally did read in two days. They are old books to all
intents and purposes, very old books ; and what is new is like
old books too, that is, full of minute facts that delight anti
quaries. . . . My friend, Sir John, is a matter-of-fact-man, and
does
8o Extracts from
does now and then stoop very low in quest of game. Then
he is so exceedingly religious and grave as to abhor mirth,
except it is printed in the old black letter, and then he calls the
most vulgar ballad pleasant and full of humour. He thinks
nothing can be sublime but an anthem, and Handel's choruses
heaven upon earth. However he writes with great moderation,
temper and good sense, and the book is a very valuable one.
I have begged his Austerity to relax in one point, for he ranks
comedy with farce and pantomime. Now I hold a perfect
comedy to be the perfection of human composition, and believe
firmly that fifty Iliads and ^Eneids could be written sooner than
such a character as FalstafFs.'
On Feb. 28, 1782, Walpole wrote to Mason (Ib. viii. 169): —
' I am sorry you will fall on my poor friend Sir John, who is
a most inoffensive and good being. Do not wound harmless
simpletons, you who can gibbet convicts of magnitude.' Mason
replied that £ Hawkins has shown himself petulant and imper
tinent in several parts of his history, and especially on the
subject of honest John Gay.' Ib. p. 170.
Bentham, speaking of about the year 1767, said: — ' I liked to
go to Sir John Hawkins' : he used to talk to me of his quarrels,
and he was always quarrelling. He had a fierce dispute with
Dr. Hawkesworth, who wrote the Adventurer and managed the
Gentleman's Magazine^ which he called his Dragon. He had
a woman in his house with red hair; and this circumstance,
of which Hawkins availed himself, gave him much advantage in
the controversy. Hawkins was alway tormenting me with his
disputatious correspondence ; always wondering how there could
be so much depravity in human nature ; yet he was himself
a good-for-nothing follow, haughty and ignorant, picking up
little anecdotes and little bits of knowledge. He was a man of
sapient look.'
' Dr. Percy (writes Malone) concurred with every other person
I have heard speak of Hawkins, in saying that he was a most
detestable fellow. Dyer knew him well at one time, and the Bishop
heard him give a character of Hawkins once that painted him in
the blackest colours. Dyer said that he knew instances of his
setting a husband against a wife, and a brother against a brother ;
fomenting
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 81
fomenting their animosity by anonymous letters. I had some
conversation with Sir J. Reynolds relative to both Hawkins and
Dyer. He observes that Hawkins, though he assumed great
outward sanctity, was not only mean and grovelling in disposi
tion, but absolutely dishonest. After the death of Dr. Johnson,
he, as one of his executors, laid hold of his watch and several
trinkets, coins, &c., which he said he should take to himself for his
trouble. Sir Joshua and Sir Wm. Scott, the other executors,
remonstrated against this, and with great difficulty compelled him
to give up the watch, which Dr. Johnson's servant, Francis
Barber, now has ; but the coins and old pieces of money they
could never get. The executors had several meetings relative
to the business of their trust. Hawkins was paltry enough to
bring them in a bill, charging his coach hire for every time
they met. With all this meanness, if not dishonesty, he was
a regular churchman, assuming the character of a most rigid
and sanctimonious censurer of the lightest foibles of others. He
never lived in any real intimacy with Dr. Johnson, who never
opened his heart to him, or had in fact any accurate knowledge
of his character.' Prior's M alone , p. 426.
Sir Joshua Reynolds perhaps had Hawkins in his mind
when he said that 'Johnson appeared to have little suspicion of
hypocrisy in religion.' Life, i. 418, n.
That the two men were not intimate is confirmed by Boswell's
statement, who says: — 'I never saw Sir John Hawkins in
Dr. Johnson's company I think but once, and I am sure not
above twice. Johnson might have esteemed him for his decent,
religious demeanour and his knowledge of books and literary
history ; but from the rigid formality of his manners it is evident
that they never could have lived together with companionable
ease and familiarity.' Life, i. 27.
Johnson himself said of him: — ' As to Sir John, why really
I believe him to be an honest man at the bottom ; but to be
sure he is penurious, and he is mean, and it must be owned he
has a degree of brutality, and a tendency to savageness, that
cannot easily be defended.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary > i. 65.
The story of the watch got abroad, and was thus sarcastically
dealt with by Person in the Gentleman s Magazine for Sept. 1787,
VOL. II. G p. 753
82 Extracts from
P- 752 (Person's Tracts, p. 342) : — * In the Life [by Hawkins],
p. 460, 461, we have an ample description of a watch that
Johnson bought for seventeen guineas ; but, just as we expect
some important consequence from this solemn introduction, the
history breaks off, and suddenly opens another subject. Now,
Mr. Urban, some days ago I picked up a printed octavo leaf,
seemingly cancelled and rejected. It was so covered with mud
and dirt that I could only make out part of it, which I here send
you, submitting it to better judgment, whether this did not
originally fill the chasm that every reader of taste and feeling
must at once perceive in the history of the watch. It is more
difficult to find a reason why it was omitted. But I am per
suaded that the person who is the object of Sir John's satire was
so hurt at the home truths contained in it, that he tampered with
the printers to have it suppressed.
FRAGMENT.
'And here, touching this watch already by me
mentioned, I insert a frotable instance of the craft and selfishness
of the Doctor's Negro servant. A few days after that whereon
Dr. Johnson died, this artful fellow came to me, and surrendered
the watch, saying at the same time, that his master had delivered
it to him a day or two before his demise, with such demeanour
and gestures that he did verily believe it was his intention that
he, namely Frank, should keep the same. Myself knowing that
no sort of credit was due to a black domestic and favourite
servant, and withal considering that the wearing thereof would
be more proper for myself, and that I had got nothing by my
trust of executor save sundry old books, and coach-hire for
journeys during the discharge of the said office ; and further
reflecting on what I have occasion elsewhere to mention, viz.
that, since the abolishing general warrants, temp. Geo. iiily no
1 On April 30, 1763, Wilkes had papers.' Such a warrant as this
been arrested on ' a general warrant Chief Justice Pratt (Lord Camden)
directed to four messengers to take declared to be ' unconstitutional, il-
up any persons without naming or legal, and absolutely void.' The
describing them with any certainty, messengers ' broke open every closet,
and to bring them, together with their bureau, and drawer in Mr. Wilkes's
good
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 83
good articles in this branch can be had any longer in England,
I took the watch from him, intending to have it appraised by
my own jeweller, a very honest and expert artificer, and, in so
doing, to have bought it as cheap as I could for myself, let it
cost what it would. Upon my signifying this my intention to
Frank, the impudent Negro said, " he plainly saw there was no good
intended for him x ; " and in anger left me. He then posted to
my colleagues, the other executors ; and there being in the
people of this country a general propensity to humanity, notwith
standing all my exertions to counteract the same both in writing2
and otherwise ; this being the case, I say, he had found means to
prepossess them so entirely in his favour that they snubbed me,
and insisted with me that I should make restitution. Finally,
though perhaps I should not have been made amenable to any
known judicature by keeping the watch, I consented, being com
pelled thereto, to let this worthless fellow retain that testimony
of his master's ill-directed benevolence in extremis V
Malone wrote to Lord Charlemont on Nov. 7, 1787: — 'You
perhaps have not heard of a very curious fact. Sir John wanted
to cheat poor Frank, Johnson's servant, of a gold watch and cane,
and Frank, not choosing to lose them, from that time became
as black again as he was before.' Hist. MSS. Com., Thirteenth
Report, App. viii. 62.]
THERE dwelt at Lichfield a gentleman of the name of Butt,
the father of the reverend Mr. Butt, now a King's Chaplain4, to
whose house on holidays and in school -vacations Johnson was
ever welcome. The children in the family, perhaps offended
with the rudeness of his behaviour, would frequently call him
house.' Person implies that in such 2 ' See Sir John's proofs that every
a search as this a man's watch might prisoner ought to be convicted, and
be carried off. See Annual Register, every convict hanged. Ib. pp. 521-3.'
1763, i. 135; Almon's Memoirs of Note by For son.
WilkeS)\. 107; Boswell's/0^z.$wz, ii. 3 A quotation from Hawkins, pp.
72, and Letters of Hume to Strahan, 599, 605.
p. 207. 4 A Rev. Mr. Butt attended John-
1 A quotation from Hawkins, p. son's funeral. Letters ii. 434.
604 n.
G 2, the
84 Extracts from
the great boy, which the father once overhearing, said, 'you
call him the great boy, but take my word for it, he will one
day prove a great man V
A more particular character of him while a schoolboy, and of
his behaviour at school, I find in a paper now before me, written
by a person yet living 2, and of which the following is a copy :
' Johnson and I were, in early life, school-fellows at Lichfield,
and for many years in the same class. As his uncommon
abilities for learning far exceeded us, we endeavoured by every
boyish piece of flattery to gain his assistance, and three of us,
by turns, used to call on him in a morning, on one of whose
backs, supported by the other two, he rode triumphantly to
school. He never associated with us in any of our diversions,
except in the winter when the ice was firm, to be drawn along
by a boy barefooted. His ambition to excel was great, though
his application to books, as far as it appeared, was very trifling.
I could not oblige him more than by sauntering away every
vacation, that occurred, in the fields, during which time he was
more engaged in talking to himself than his companion. Verses
or themes he would dictate to his favourites, but he would never
be at the trouble of writing them. His dislike to business was
so great, that he would procrastinate his exercises to the last
1 Percy, writing of Johnson at Stour- has now over men. That he seemed
bridge School, says : — * Here his to learn by intuition the contents of
genius was so distinguished that, al- any book, that the boys submitted
though little better than a school-boy, to him, and paid him great respect,
he was admitted into the best com- . . . That he used to have oatmeal
pany of the place, and had no common porridge for breakfast. That his
attention paid to his conversation ; father was a very sensible man, and
of which remarkable instances were very successful as a bookseller and
long remembered there.' Anderson's stationer — used to open a shop once
Johnson, ed. 1815, p. 20. a week at Birmingham ; but was a
2 Edmund Hector. Life, i. 47. loser by a manufacture of parchment
Boswell recorded in his note-book which he set up. That his mother
in March, 1776 : — * Mr. Hector, was a very remarkable woman for
surgeon at Birmingham, who was good understanding. I asked him
at school with him, and used to buy if she was not vain of her son, Mr.
tarts with him of Dame Reid, told Hector said she had too much good
me that he had the same extra- sense to be vain, but she knew her
ordinary superiority over the boys of son's value.' Morrison Autographs >
the same age with himself that he 2nd Series, i. 368.
hour
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 85
hour. I have known him after a long vacation, in which we were
rather severely tasked *, return to school an hour earlier in the
morning, and begin one of his exercises, in which he purposely
left some faults, in order to gain time to finish the rest.
I never knew him corrected at school, unless it was for talking ./
and diverting other boys from their business, by which, perhaps,
he might hope to keep his ascendancy. He was uncommonly
inquisitive, and his memory so tenacious, that whatever he read
or heard he never forgot. I remember rehearsing to him eighteen
verses, which after a little pause he repeated verbatim, except
one epithet, which improved the line.
After a long absence from Lichfield, when he returned I was
apprehensive of something wrong in his constitution2, which
might either impair his intellect or endanger his life, but, thanks
to Almighty God, my fears have proved false.' (Page 6.)
[When Johnson was at Pembroke College 3] the want of that
assistance, which scholars in general derive from their parents,
relations, and friends, soon became visible in his garb and appear
ance, which, though in some degree concealed by a scholar's
gown, and that we know is never deemed the less honourable
for being old, was so apparent as to excite pity in some that
saw and noticed him. He had scarce any change of raiment,
and, in a short time after Corbet 4 left him, but one pair of /
shoes, and those so old, that his feet were seen through them : ^
a gentleman of his college, the father of an eminent clergyman
now living, directed a servitor one morning to place a new pair
1 Ante, i. 161. 2 Life, i. 63. ' Quo die comparuit coram me
3 Johnson matriculated on Oct. 31, Joshua Ellis e Coll Pembr generosi
1728, and no doubt received from fil et subscripsit Articulis Fidei, et
the Vice-Chancellor a document Religionis ; et juramentum suscepit
similar to the following, which is deagnoscendasupremaRegiseMajes-
pasted in at the end of a copy of tads potestate ; et de observandis
Parecbolcs sive Excerpta e corpore Statutis, Privilegiis et Consuetudini-
Statutorzim Universitatis Oxoniensis. bus hujus Universitatis.
It was shown me by Mr. Viner * Jo. Mather, Vice-Can.'
Ellis, a descendant of Johnson's con- wmiam pkt entered
temporary at Pembroke to whom it lege on Jan f
had been given. Magazine, 1784, p. 5.
' Oxonias. Dec. 14. Anno Domini
Life, i. 58 ; ante, i. 362.
at
86
Extracts from
at the door of Johnson's chamber, who, seeing them upon his
first going out, so far forgot himself and the spirit that must
have actuated his unknown benefactor, that, with all the in
dignation of an insulted man, he threw them away1. (Page 10.)
In this course of learning, his favourite objects were classical
literature, ethics, and theology, in the latter whereof he laid the
foundation by studying the Fathers2. If we may judge from
the magnitude of his Adversaria, which I have now by me 3, his
1 Life, \. 77.
Johnson's difficulties no doubt were
increased by the general dearness
during his residence at College. The
year in which he entered, 1728, wheat
stood higher than it did in a period
of more than fifty years. 1729 also
was a dear year. Wealth of Nations,
ed. 1811, i. 359. See ante, i. 129,
n. i.
2 * He told me what he read solidly
at Oxford was Greek ; . . . that the
study of which he was the most fond
was Metaphysicks, but he had not
read much even in that way.' Life,
1.70.
Boswell recorded in his note
book :—' Ashbourne, 20 Sept. 1777.
Dr. Johnson told me that he had
been always idle. That his most
determinate application had been
within these ten years in reading
Greek. That the reading which he
had loved most was metaphysicks ;
but that he had not read much even
in that way. That he very early
loved to read poetry, but hardly ever
read any poem to an end. That he
read in Shakespeare at a very early
time of life, so early that he remem
bers being afraid to read the speech
of the Ghost in Hamlet when
alone. That Horace's Odes have
been the composition in which he
has taken most delight.' Morrison
Autographs, 2nd Series, i. 372. For
his Greek see ante, i. 183.
3 See Life, i. 205, and /AT/, p. 129,
where Hawkins was detected in
pocketing two volumes in Johnson's
handwriting. Some volumes he either
secreted, or Johnson neglected to
destroy, when he burnt his private
papers ; for Hawkins not only had
these Adversaria, but other volumes
of a much more private nature, which
he thus describes: 'To enable him
at times to review his progress in
life, and to estimate his improvement
in religion, he, in the year 1734, be
gan to note down the transactions of
each day, recollecting, as well as he
was able, those of his youth, and
interspersing such reflections and
resolutions as, under particular cir
cumstances, he was induced to make.
This register, which he intitled
"Annales," does not form an entire
volume, but is contained in a variety
of little books folded and stitched
together by himself, and which were
found mixed with his papers. Some
specimens of these notanda have
been lately printed with his prayers.'
' It was my business (writes Miss
Hawkins, Memoirs, i. 188) to select
from his little books of self-examina
tion, which came into my father's
hands, the passages that should be
printed as specimens ; and I rejected,
as subject to wild surmises, those
which contained marks known only
in their significations by himself.'
See also Life, iv. 406, n. i.
plan
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 87
plan for study was a very extensive one. The heads of science,
to the extent of six folio volumes, are copiously branched
throughout it ; but, as is generally the case with young students,
the blank far exceed in number the written leaves.
To say the truth, the course of his studies was far from
regular : he read by fits and starts, and, in the intervals, digested
his reading by meditation, to which he was ever prone. Neither
did he regard the hours of study, farther than the discipline of
the college compelled him. It was the practice in his time, for
a servitor, by order of the Master, to go round to the rooms of
the young men, and knocking at the -door, to enquire if they
were within, and, if no answer was returned, to report them ,/
absent1. Johnson could not endure this intrusion, and would
frequently be silent, when the utterance of a word would have
insured him from censure ; and, farther to be revenged for being
disturbed when he was profitably employed as perhaps he could
be, would join with others of the young men in the college in
hunting, as they called it, the servitor, who was thus diligent in
his duty ; and this they did with the noise of pots and candle
sticks, singing to the tune of Chevy-chace, the words in that
old ballad,
* To drive the deer with hound and horn,3 &c.,
not seldom to the endangering the life and limbs of the unfor
tunate victim. (Page 1 2.)
It was wonderful to see, when he took up a book, with what
eagerness he perused, and with what haste his eye travelled
over it : he has been known to read a volume, and that not
a small one, at a sitting ; nor was he inferior in the power of
memory to him with whom he is compared [Magliabechi] ;
whatever he read, became his own for ever, with all the ad
vantages that a penetrating judgment and deep reflection could
add to it. I have heard him repeat, with scarce a mistake of
1 Whitefield, who entered the see who were in their rooms, I
College soon after Johnson left, re- thought the devil would appear to
cords : — ' It being my duty, as ser- me every stair I went up.' Tyerman's
vitor, in my turn to knock at the Whitefield^ i. 20.
gentlemen's rooms by ten at night, to
a word
88 Extracts from
a word, passages from favourite authors, of three or four octavo
pages in length1. (Page 16.)
He could not, at this early period of his life, divest himself of
an opinion, that poverty was disgraceful ; and was very severe in
his censures of ceconomy in both our universities, which exacted
at meals the attendance of poor scholars, under the several de
nominations of servitors in the one, and sizers in the other2:
he thought that the scholar's, like the Christian life, levelled all
distinctions of rank and worldly pre-eminence. (Page 18.)
Upon his leaving the university, he went home to the house of
his father, which he found so nearly filled with his relations, that
is to say, the maiden sisters of his mother and cousin Cornelius
Ford, whom his father, on the decease of their brother in the
summer of 1731 3, had taken in to board, that it would scarce
receive him. (Page 19.)
Cave was so incompetent a judge of Johnson's abilities, that,
meaning at one time to dazzle him with the splendour of some
of those luminaries in literature who favoured him with their
correspondence, he told him that, if he would, in the evening, be
at a certain alehouse in the neighbourhood of Clerkenwell, he
might have a chance of seeing Mr. Browne 4 and another or two
of the persons mentioned in the preceding note: Johnson
1 Life, \. 39, 48. aulay's great uncle, ' he gave an ao
Lockhart gives the following in- count of the education at Oxford in
stance of Scott's memory. 'Lord all its gradations. The advantage of
Corehouse repeating a phrase, re- being a servitor to a youth of little
markable only for its absurdity, from fortune struck Mrs. Macaulay much.'
a Magazine poem of the very silliest Life, v. 122.
feebleness, which they had laughed 3 Nathaniel Ford died in 1731 ;
at when at College together [nearly Cornelius Ford in 1734. Notes and
forty years earlier,] Scott began at Queries, 5th S. xiii. 250. Johnson
the beginning, and gave it us to the left Oxford in 1729.
end, with apparently no more effort 4 Moses Browne, ' originally a pen-
than if he himself had composed it cutter, was, so far as concerned the
the day before.' Lockhart's Scott, poetical part of it, the chief support
ed. 1839, vii. 194. of the Gentleman's Magazine, which
2 Servitors in Oxford, sizars in he fed with many a nourishing
Cambridge. In the manse at Calder, morsel.' Hawkins, p. 46 n.
where Johnson visited Lord Mac- He became a clergyman and was
accepted
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 89
accepted the invitation ; and being introduced by Cave, dressed
in a loose horseman's coat, and such a great bushy uncombed
wig as he constantly wore *, to the sight of Mr. Browne, whom he
found sitting at the upper end of a long table, in a cloud of
tobacco-smoke, had his curiosity gratified.
Johnson saw very clearly those offensive particulars that made
a part of Cave's character ; but, as he was one of the most
quick-sighted men I ever knew in discovering the good and
amiable qualities of others, a faculty which he has displayed, as
well in the life of Cave, as in that of Savage, printed among
his works, so was he ever inclined to palliate their defects ; and,
though he was above courting the patronage of a man, whom, in
respect of his mental endowments he considered as his inferior,
he disdained not to accept it, when tendered with any degree of
complacency.
And this was the general tenor of Johnson's behaviour ; for,
though his character through life was marked with a rough
ness that approached to ferocity, it was in the power of almost ^/
every one to charm him into mildness, and to1 render him gentle
and placid, and even courteous, by such a patient and respectful
^attention as is due to every one,, who,, in his discourse,, signifies
a desire either to instruct or delight. Bred to no profession,
without relations,, friends, or interest, Johnson was an adventurer v
in the wide world,, and had his fortunes to make : the arts of
insinuation and address were, in his opinion, too slow in their
operation to answer his purpose ; and, he rather chose to display
his parts to all the world, at the risque of being thought arro
gant, than to wait for the assistance of such friends as he could
make, or the patronage of some individual that had power or
influence, and who might have the kindness to take him by the
hand, and lift him into notice. With all that asperity of manners
Vicar of Olney twenty-four years. thought he should have been dis-
He was born in 1704 and died in tracted ; but when he had ten or a
1787. Gentleman's Magazine, 1787, dozen he was perfectly easy, and
p. 932. thought no more about the matter.'
'I remember,' writes Cowper, ' hear- Cowper's Works, ed. 1836, iv. 154.
ing Moses Browne say, that when ' Hawkins, post, p. 103, describes
he had only two or three children, he this wig.
with
90 Extracts from
with which he has been charged, and which kept at a distance
many, who, to my knowledge, would have been glad of an
, intimacy with him, he possessed the affections of pity and com
passion in a most eminent degree. In a mixed company, of
which I was one, the conversation turned on the pestilence
which raged in London, in the year 1665, and gave occasion to
Johnson to speak of Dr. Nathanael Hodges, who, in the height
of that calamity, continued in the city, and was almost the
only one of his profession that had the courage to oppose the
endeavours of his art to the spreading of the contagion. It was
the hard fate of this person, a short time after, to die a prisoner
for debt, in Ludgate : Johnson related this circumstance to us,
with the tears ready to start from his eyes ; and, with great
energy said, c Such a man would not have been suffered to perish
in these times V (Page 49.)
Johnson was never greedy of money, but without money could
not be stimulated to write. I have been told by a clergyman
of some eminence with whom he had been long acquainted,
that, being to preach on a particular occasion, he applied, as
others under a like necessity had frequently done, to Johnson
for help. ' I will write a sermon for thee/ said Johnson, ' but
thou must pay me for it 2.' (Page 84.)
1 De Foe mentions him in a pas- thorised physician. . . . He became
sage, where, speaking of the quacks, poor, was imprisoned in Ludgate for
he says: — 'their doors were more debt, and there died June 10, 1688.'
thronged than those of ... Dr. His book on the plague, which Dr.
Hodges, or any, though the most Quincy translated in 1720, ' shows
famous men of the time.' De Foe's him to have been an excellent ob-
Works, v. 25. On p. 192 he says : — server both as to symptoms and the
' Great was the reproach thrown results of treatment.' DR. NORMAN
upon those physicians who left their MOORE in the Diet. Nat. Biog. xxvii.
patients during the sickness; and 60.
now they came to town again, nobody 2 ' No man but a blockhead ever
cared to employ them; they were wrote except for money.3 Life, iii. 19.
called deserters, and frequently bills Strahan wrote to Hume on April 9,
were set up on their doors, and written, 1774: — 'If your commendations of
Here is a doctor to be let ! ' Henry's History are well founded, is
' In recognition of Dr. Hodges's not his work an exception to your
services to the citizens during the own general rule, that no good book
plague, the authorities of the City was ever wrote for money ? ' Letters
granted him a stipend as their au- of Hume to Stratum, p. 285.
In
Hawkins's Life of Johnson.
In contradiction to those, who, having a wife and children,
prefer domestic enjoyments to those which a tavern affords,
I have heard him assert, that a tavern-chair was the throne of
human felicity r. — ' As soon,' said he, ' as I enter the door of
a tavern, I experience an oblivion of care, and a freedom from
solicitude 2 : when I am seated, I find the master courteous, and
' We who write, if we want the talent,
yet have the excuse that we do it for
a poor subsistence ; but what can be
urged in their defence, who not having
the vocation of poverty to scribble,
out of meer wantonness take pains
to make themselves ridiculous.'
Dry den's Preface to All for Love.
Johnson says of Addison : — ' I have
heard that his avidity did not satisfy
itself with the air of renown, but that
with great eagerness he laid hold on
his proportion of the profits.' Works ;
vii. 437. See also ante, ii. 14, and
post, p. 107.
1 Ante, ii. 70.
2 ' It is worthy of remark by those
who are curious in observing customs
and modes of living, how little these
houses of entertainment are now
frequented, and what a diminution in
their number has been experienced
in London and Westminster in a
period of about forty years backward.
. . . When the frenzy of the times was
abated [after the Restoration], taverns,
especially those about the Exchange,
became places for the transaction of
almost all manner of business : there
accounts were settled, conveyances
executed, and there attornies sat, as
at inns in the country on market
days, to receive their clients. In that
space near the Royal Exchange which
is encompassed by Lombard, Grace-
church, part of Bishop's-gate and
Threadneedle streets, the number of
taverns was not so few as twenty,
and on the site of the Bank there
stood four. At the Crown, which
was one of them, it was not unusual
in a morning to draw a butt of
mountain, a hundred and twenty
gallons, in gills.' Note by Hawkins.
In the Old Cheshire Cheese, that
ancient Fleet Street tavern which
looks now as it may have looked in
Johnson's day, his seat is marked by
an inscription. In no contemporary
writer is mention made of his fre
quenting the tavern. Cyrus Jay, in
1868, dedicated his book The Law :
( To the Lawyers and Gentlemen with
whom I have dined for more than
half a century at the Old Cheshire
Cheese, Wine Office Court, Fleet
Street.' In the Preface he says : —
' During the fifty-three years I have
frequented the Cheshire Cheese there
have been only three landlords.
When I first visited it I used to meet
several old gentlemen who remem
bered Dr. Johnson nightly at the
Cheshire Cheese ; and they have
told me, what is not generally known,
that the Doctor, whilst living in the
Temple, always went to the Mitre or
the Essex Head ; but when he re
moved to Gough Square or Bolt
Court he was a constant visitor at
the Cheshire Cheese, because nothing
but a hurricane would have induced
him to cross Fleet Street.'
There is much loose talk in this.
It is not likely that many, if indeed
any, of the old gentlemen remembered
Johnson in Gough Square, for he
left it in 1759. It was moreover a
year later that he removed to the
Temple. Boswell too records many
the
92 Extracts from
the servants obsequious to my call ; anxious to know and ready
to supply my wants : wine there exhilarates my spirits, and
prompts me to free conversation and an interchange of dis
course with those whom I most love : I dogmatise and am con
tradicted, and in this conflict of opinions and sentiments I find
delight1/ (Page 87.)
The debates penned by Johnson were not only more methodical
and better connected than those of Guthrie2, but in all the
ornaments of stile superior : they were written at those seasons
when he was able to raise his imagination to such a pitch of
fervour as bordered upon enthusiasm, which, that he might the
better do, his practice was to shut himself up in a room
assigned him at St. John's gate, to which he would not suffer
any one to approach, except the compositor or Cave's boy for
matter, which, as fast as he composed it, he tumbled out at the
door3. (Page 99.)
j— His discourse, which through life was of the didactic kind, was
fL replete with original sentiments expressed in the strongest and
/ most correct terms, and in such language, that whoever could
(have heard and not seen him would have thought him reading 4.
For the pleasure he communicated to his hearers he expected
v/not the tribute of silence : on the contrary he encouraged others,
particularly young men, to speak, and paid a due attention to
what they said 5 ; but his prejudices were so strong and deeply
rooted, more especially against Scotchmen6 and Whigs, that
whoever thwarted him ran the risque of a severe rebuke, or at
dinners at the Mitre after he had re- 2 Life, i. 1 16.
moved to the other side of Fleet 3 Ib. iv. 408.
Street. Nevertheless we may take 4 Ib. i. 204 ; iv. 183 ; post in
the account as direct evidence of Reynolds's Anecdotes.
what could scarcely be doubtful that 5 Johnson, speaking of himself,
Johnson often dined in the tavern. said : — ' No man is so cautious not
1 Quoted by Boswell. Life, ii. 452. to interrupt another ; no man thinks
When I had the honour of meeting it so necessary to appear attentive
Mr. Gladstone at Oxford on Feb. 6, when others are speaking.' Ante,
1890, he quoted this passage in his i. 169.
strong, deep voice, with deliberate 6 Ante, i. 429; Life, ii. 77, 121,
utterance, and praised it highly. 306 ; iv. 169.
best
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 93
best became entangled in an unpleasant altercation1. He was
scarce settled in town before this dogmatical behaviour, and his
impatience of contradiction, became a part of his character, and
deterred many persons of learning, who wished to enjoy the
delight of his conversation, from seeking his acquaintance.
There were not wanting those among his friends who would
sometimes hint to him, that the conditions of free conversation
imply an equality among those engaged in it, which are violated
whenever superiority is assumed2: their reproofs he took kindly,
and would in excuse for what they called the pride of learning,
say, that it was of the defensive kind 3. The repetition of these
had, however, a great effect on him ; they abated his prejudices,
>and produced a change in his temper and manners that rendered
him at length a desirable companion in the most polite circles.
In the lesser duties of morality he was remiss : he slept when
he should have studied, and watched when he should have been
at rest : his habits were slovenly, and the neglect of his person
and garb so great as to render his appearance disgusting4.
He was an ill husband of his time, and so regardless of the
hours of refection, that at two he might be found at breakfast,
and at dinner at eight 5. In his studies, and I may add, in his
1 'Sir, I perceive you are a vile Oxford Colleges was 12.30; in some
Whig.' Life, ii. 170. See also ib. as early as n. Bentham's Works,
v. 255. x. 61. At Sir Joshua Reynolds's
2 ' Sir, (said Goldsmith,) you are ' dinner was served precisely at five,
for making a monarchy of what whether all the company had arrived
should be a republick.' Ib. ii. 257. or not.' Leslie and Taylor's Reynolds,
3 They borrowed this from John- i. 384.
son. ' " Sir, (said Johnson) that is Horace Walpole wrote on Feb. 6,
not Lord Chesterfield ; he is the 1777 {Letters, vi. 410) : ' Everything
proudest man this day existing." — is changed ; as always must happen
" No, (said Dr. Adams) there is one when one grows old, and is prejudiced
person, at least, as proud ; I think, to one's old ways. I do not like
by your own account, you are the dining at nearly six, nor beginning
prouder man of the two."—" But the evening at ten at night.'
mine (replied Johnson instantly) was When a few years ago the Prince
defensive pride." ' Ib. i. 265. of Wales asked General Gordon,
4 Life, 1.396. For the improvement soon after his return from the Soudan,
which took place, see ib. iii. 325 ; to dine with him, the general replied,
ante, i. 241, and Letters, i. 322; that he was sorry he could not accept
ii. 39. the invitation, as at the hour named
5 In 1760 the dinner-hour in most he was always in bed.
devotional
94 Extracts from
devotional exercises, he was both intense and remiss x, and in the
prosecution of his literary employments, dilatory and hasty,
unwilling, as himself confessed, to work, and working with vigour
and haste 2.
His indolence, or rather the delight he took in reading and
v reflection, rendered him averse to bodily exertions. He was ill
made for riding, and took so little pleasure in it, that, as he once
told me, he has fallen asleep on his horse 3. Walking he seldom
practised, perhaps for no better reason, than that it required the
previous labour of dressing. In a word, mental occupation was
his sole pleasure, and the knowledge he acquired in the pursuit
of it he was ever ready to communicate : in which faculty he
was not only excellent but expert ; for, as it is related of
lord Bacon by one who knew him 4, that * in all companies he
appeared a good proficient, if not a master, in those arts enter
tained for the subject of every one's discourse,' and that ' his
most casual talk deserved to be written,' so it may be said
of Johnson, that his conversation was ever suited to the
profession, condition, and capacity of those with whom he
talked5. (Page 164.)
Johnson, who before this time [1748 or 1749], together with
\ his wife, had lived in obscurity, lodging at different houses in
the courts and alleys in and about the Strand and Fleet street 6,
had, for the purpose of carrying on this arduous work [the
Dictionary^ and being near the printers employed in it, taken
a handsome house in Gough square 7, and fitted up a room in it
with desks and other accommodations for amanuenses, who, to
the number of five or six, he kept constantly under his eye.
1 For his attendance at church, see 7 Ib. i. 188 ; Letters, i. 1 8. It was
ante, i. 63, 81 ; Life, i. 67 ; iii. 401. in No. 17 that he lived.
2 Ante, i. 96. ' There is no city in Europe, I be-
3 For his fox-hunting, see ante, i. lieve, in which house-rent is dearer
288. than in London, and yet I know no
4 Works of Francis Osborn, Esq. ; capital in which a furnished apart-
8vo, 1673, p. 1 5 1. Note by Hawkins. ment can be hired so cheap.' Wealth
5 Life, iii. 337. of Nations, Bk. I. ch. 10, ed. 1811,
6 Also in Holborn. For the list of i. 161.
his habitations, see ib. iii. 405.
An
Hawkins's Life of Johnson.
95
An interleaved copy of Bailey's dictionary J in folio he made the
repository of the several articles, and these he collected by
incessant reading the best authors in our language, in the
practice whereof, his method was to score with a black-lead pencil
the words by him selected, and give them over to his assistants
to insert in their places 2. The books he used for this purpose
were what he had in his own collection, a copious but a miserably
ragged one, and all such as he could borrow ; which latter,
if ever they came back to those that lent them, were so defaced
as to be scarce worth owning, and yet, some of his friends were
glad to receive and entertain them as curiosities3. (Page 175.)
Further to appease Johnson Lord Chesterfield sent two persons,
the one a specious but empty man, Sir Thomas Robinson, more
distinguished by the tallness of his person than for any estimable
qualities 4 ; the other an eminent painter now living. These
1 Nathaniel Bailey published his
English Dictionary in 1721.
* " What objection can you have to
the young gentleman ? " says Mrs.
Western.
' " A very solid objection, in my
opinion,' says Sophia — " I hate him/'
'"Will you never learn a proper
use of words ? " answered the aunt.
" Indeed, child, you should consult
Bailey's Dictionary." ' Tom Jones,
Bk. vii. ch. 3.
Dr. Murray, in the New Eng. Diet.
under Belace says that this word * is
found only in Dictionaries. It ap
peared first in Bailey's folio, 1730,
was retained by Dr. Johnson (who
used a copy of that as the basis of
his work), and from him it has been
perpetuated by later dictionaries.'
Johnson omitted the word in his
Abridgment.
2 Post in Percy's Anecdotes.
3 Life, i. 188.
Mr. Talbot Baines Reid showed
me a small sheet of paper in Johnson's
hand in which quotations had been
written such as the following : —
' But some untaught o'erhear the
whisp'ring rill,
In spite of sacred leisure block
heads still.'
YOUNG [Satire i., Works, ed. 1813,
ii. 87].
' His well-breath'd beagles sweep
along the plain.'
YOUNG \Ib. p. 88].
* A gipsy you commit
' And shake the clumsy bench with
country wit.'
YOUNG [/£.].
' Beauty is no bar to sense.'
YOUNG {Satire v., ii. 126].
These passages are not quoted in
the Dictionary under the words
underlined by Johnson.
4 ' This person, who is now at rest
in Westminster-abbey, was, when
living, distinguished by the name of
long Sir Thomas Robinson. He was
a man of the world or rather of the
town, and a great pest to persons of
high rank or in office. He was very
troublesome to the earl of Burlington,
and when in his visits to him he was
told that his lordship was gone out,
were
96 Extracts from
were instructed to apologize for his lordship's treatment of
him, and to make him tenders of his future friendship and.
patronage. Sir Thomas, whose talent was flattery, was profuse
in his commendations of Johnson and his writings, and declared
that were his circumstances other than they were, himself would
settle five hundred pounds a year on him. * And who are you,'
asked Johnson, < that talk thus liberally ? ' ' I am,' said the
other, ' Sir Thomas Robinson, a Yorkshire baronet.' ' Sir/
replied Johnson, * if the first peer of the realm were to make
me such an offer, I would shew him the way down stairs V
(Page 191.)
In these disputations [at the Ivy Lane Club2] I had oppor
tunities of observing what others have taken occasion to remark,
viz. not only that in conversation Johnson made it a rule to talk
his best 3, but that on many subjects he was not uniform in his
opinions, contending as often for victory as for truth4: at one
time good, at another evil was predominant in the moral constitu
tion of the world. Upon one occasion, he would deplore the
non-observance of Good-Friday, and on another deny, that
among us of the present age there is any decline of public
worship5. He would sometimes contradict self-evident pro-
would desire to be admitted to look with him. Life, i. 434. Dr. Maxwell
at the clock, or to play with a monkey recorded how Johnson once told the
that was kept in the hall, in hopes Baronet that * he talked the language
of being sent for in to the earl. This of a savage.' Ib. ii. 130.
he had so frequently done, that all Horace Walpole describes Robin-
in the house were tired of him. At son as* one of those men of temporary
length it was concerted among the fame who are universally known in
servants that he should receive a their own age, and rarely by any
summary answer to his usual ques- other age. He was an indiscriminate
tions, and accordingly at his next flatterer.' Philobiblon, x. iv. 57.
coming, the porter as soon as he had 2 Ante, i. 388. 3 Life, iv. 183.
opened the gate and without waiting 4 Ib. ii. 238 ; iv. in ; ante, i. 452.
for what he had to say, dismissed 5 'BOSWELL. "Is there not less
him with these words, " Sir, his lord- religion in the nation now, Sir, than
ship is gone out, the clock stands, there was formerly ? " JOHNSON.
and the monkey is dead." ' Note by " I don't know, Sir, that there is." '
Hawkins. Life, ii. 96. * He lamented that all
For the Earl of Burlington, see serious and religious conversation
Life, iii. 347 ; iv. 50, n. 4. was banished from the society of
1 He visited Johnson after this, for men.' Ib. ii. 124.
in 1763 Boswell found him sitting « I remarked, that one disadvantage
positions
Hawkins's Life of Johnson.
97
positions, such as, that the luxury of this country has increased
with its riches x and that the practice of card-playing is more
general than heretofore2. At this versatility of temper, none,
however, took offence ; as Alexander and Caesar were born for
conquest, so was Johnson for the office of a symposiarch 3, to
preside in all conversations ; and I never yet saw the man who
would venture to contest his right 4.
Let it not, however, be imagined, that the members of this
our club met together, with the temper of gladiators, or that
there was wanting among us a disposition to yield to each other
in all diversities of opinion : and indeed, disputation was not,
as in many associations of this kind, the purpose of our meeting :
nor were our conversations, like those of the Rota club 5, re
strained to particular topics. On the contrary, it may be said,
that with our gravest discourses was intermingled
'Mirth, that after no repenting draws/
MILTON (Sonnet to Cyriac Skinner),
for not only in Johnson's melancholy there were lucid intervals 6,
arising from the immensity of London,
was, that nobody was heeded by his
neighbour ; there was no fear of cen
sure for not observing Good Friday,
as it ought to be kept, and as it is kept
in country-towns. He said, it was,
upon the whole, very well observed
even in London.' Life, ii. 356.
1 Johnson always opposed attacks
on luxury. To suppose that it cor
rupts a people and destroys the spirit
of liberty was ' all visionary.' Ib. ii.
170. 'No nation was ever hurt by
it, for it can reach but to a very few.'
Ib. ii. 218. 'It produces much good.'
Ib. iii. 56. ' He laughed at querulous
declamations against the age on ac
count of luxury.' Ib. iii. 226. ' De
pend upon it, Sir, every state of
society is as luxurious as it can be.'
Ib. iii. 282. ' Man is not diminished
in size by it.' Ib. v. 358.
Luxury, which in most parts of
life by being well-balanced and dif-
VOL. II. H
fused, is only decency and conveni
ence, has perhaps as many, or more,
good than evil consequences attend
ing it. It certainly excites industry,
nourishes emulation, and inspires
some sense of personal value into all
ranks of people.' Burke's Works, ed.
1808, ii. 203.
2 Life, iii. 23.
3 Symposiarch is not in Johnson's
Dictionary.
4 Ante, ii. 93, n. 2.
5 Hawkins, I suppose, refers to the
Rota Club in which James Harington,
' with a few associates as fanatical as
himself, used to meet, with all the
gravity of political importance, to
settle an equal government by rota
tion.' Johnson's Works, vii. 95.
They met in New Palace Yard,
Westminster. Swift's Works, ed.
1803, ii. 321.
6 Letters, ii. 377, «. i.
but
98
Extracts from
>ut he was a great contributor to the mirth of conversation, by
the many witty sayings he uttered, and the many excellent
\stories which his memory had treasured up, and he would on
>ccasion relate; so that those are greatly mistaken who infer,
'either from the general tendency of his writings, or that appear
ance of hebetude which marked his countenance when living,
and is discernible in the pictures and prints of him, that he
;ould only reason and discuss, dictate and controul.
In the talent of humour there hardly ever was his equal1,
1 Ante,i.4$2. The following extract
is from a letter which I received from
the late Master of Balliol College,
dated West Malvern, Dec. 30, 1883 :—
* It is a curious question whether
Boswell has unconsciously misrepre
sented Johnson in any respect. I
think, judging from the materials
which are supplied chiefly by himself,
hat in one respect he has : — He has
represented him more as a sage and
hilosopher in his conduct as well as
is conversation than he really was,
and less as a rollicking " King of
Society." The gravity of Johnson's
own writings tends to confirm this,
s, I suspect, erroneous impression.
His religion was fitful and inter
mittent, and when once the ice was
broken he enjoyed Jack Wilkes,
though he refused to shake hands
with Hume. I was much struck by
a remark of Sir John Hawkins (ex
cuse me if I have mentioned this to
you before), " He was the most
humorous man I ever knew." ... I
shall be most happy to talk about the
subject when you return to England ;
e/zot TTfpi ScoKpdrovs flneiv re Km aKovaai
del fj8i(TTov.'
Though Boswell does not fully
bring out in his narrative this hu-
orous side of Johnson, yet in the
haracter which he draws of him at
the end of the Life he does not pass
over. ' Though usually grave, and
even aweful in his deportment, he
possessed uncommon and peculiar
powers of wit and humour ; he fre
quently indulged himself in colloquial
pleasantry ; and the heartiest merri
ment was often enjoyed in his com
pany.' Life, iv. 428.
Boswell asked Miss Burney to give
him material ' to shew Johnson in a
new light. Grave Sam, and great
Sam, and solemn Sam, and learned
Sam — all these he has appeared over
and over. I want to show him as
gay Sam, agreeable Sam, pleasant
Sam.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, v.
[67. It is in her Diary that he is
ms best shown. It abounds in such
ssages as the following : —
' At night, Mrs. Thrale asked if I
would have anything ? I answered,
" No ; " but Dr. Johnson said,
1 " Yes : she is used, madam, to
suppers ; she would like an egg or
two, and a few slices of ham, or a
rasher — a rasher, I believe, would
please her better."
' How ridiculous ! However, nothing
could persuade Mrs. Thrale not to
have the cloth laid : and Dr. Johnson
was so facetious, that he challenged
Mr. Thrale to get drunk !
' " I wish," said he, " my master
would say to me, Johnson, if you will
oblige me, you will call for a bottle
of Toulon, and then we will set to it,
glass for glass, till it is done; and
except
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 99
except perhaps among the old comedians, such as Tarleton, and
a few others mentioned by Gibber. By means of this he was
enabled to give to any relation that required it, the graces and
aids of expression, and to discriminate with the nicest exactness
the characters of those whom it concerned. In aping this faculty
I have seen Warburton disconcerted, and when he would fain
have been thought a man of pleasantry, not a little out of
countenance. (Page 257.)
To return to Johnson, I have already said that he paid no
regard to time or the stated hours of refection, or even rest ; and
of this his inattention I will here relate a notable instance.
Mrs. Lenox, a lady now well known in the literary world, had
written a novel intitled, ' The life of Harriot Stuart/ which in
the spring of 1751 was ready for publication1. One evening at
the club, Johnson proposed to us the celebrating the birth of
Mrs. Lenox's first literary child, as he called her book, by
a whole night spent in festivity. Upon his mentioning it to me,
I told him I had never sat up a whole night in my life ; but he
continuing to press me, and saying, that I should find great
delight in it, I, as did all the rest of our company, consented.
The place appointed was the Devil tavern2, and there, about
after that, I will say, Thrale, if you and deplorable actress/ Letters, ii.
will oblige me, you will call for another 1 26. Johnson, in a letter dated Dec.
bottle of Toulon, and then we will set 10, 1751, speaks of ' our Charlotte's
to it, glass for glass, till that is done : book.' Letters, i. 26. For Miss
and by the time we should have Burney's criticism of the extravagant
drunk the two bottles, we should be praise he bestowed on Mrs. Lennox,
so happy, and such good friends, see ante, i. 102, n. 4.
that we should fly into each other's Mrs. Lennox was the daughter of
arms, and both together call for the Colonel James Ramsay, Lieutenant-
third ! " ' Vol. i. p. 75. Governor of New York. < She died
* These volumes contain a series in distress' in 1804, at the age of
of love-affairs from n years of age, eighty-three, ' in Dean's Yard, West-
attended with a number of her ad- minster, and lies buried with the
ventures and misfortunes, which were common soldiery in the further bury-
borne with the patience, and are ing -ground of Broad Chapel.'
penn'd with the purity of a Clarissa.' Nichols's Lit. Anec. iii. 435.
Gentleman's Magazine, December, 2 Life, iv. 254, n. 4.
I75°> P- 575- 'Near Temple Bar is the Devil
Horace Walpole, writing two years Tavern, so called from its sign of
earlier, describes her as ' a poetess St. Dunstan seizing the evil spirit by
H 2 the
ioo Extracts from
i the hour of eight, Mrs. Lenox and her husband, and a lady of
her acquaintance, now living, as also the [Ivy Lane] club, and
J friends to the number of near twenty, assembled. Our supper
was elegant, and Johnson had directed that a magnificent hot
apple-pye should make a part of it T, and this he would have
stuck with bay-leaves, because, forsooth, Mrs. Lenox was an
authoress, and had written verses ; and further, he had prepared
for her a crown of laurel, with which, but not till he had
invoked the muses by some ceremonies of his own invention,
he encircled her brows. The night passed, as must be imagined,
in pleasant conversation, and harmless mirth, intermingled at
different periods with the refreshments of coffee and tea. About
five, Johnson's face shone with meridian splendour, though his
drink had been only lemonade 2 ; but the far greater part of us
had deserted the colours of Bacchus, and were with difficulty
rallied to partake of a second refreshment of coffee, which was
scarcely ended when the day began to dawn. This phenomenon
began to put us in mind of our reckoning3 ; but the waiters were
all so overcome with sleep, that it was two hours before we could
get a bill, and it was not till near eight that the creaking of the
street-door gave the signal for our departure.
My mirth had been considerably abated by a severe fit of the
tooth-ach, which had troubled me the greater part of the night,
and which Bathurst 4 endeavoured to alleviate by all the topical
remedies and palliatives he could think of ; and I well remember,
at the instant of my going out of the tavern-door, the sensation of
shame that effected me, occasioned not by reflection on any thing
the nose with a pair of hot tongs. that feeble man who cannot do with-
Opposite to this noted house is out any thing." ' Life, v. 72.
Chancery Lane.' Pennant's London, 3 To Hawkins the reckoning must
1790, p. 154. have been peculiarly painful. Of him
1 In memory of this festal night an Dr. Burney records as regards the
apple-pie forms part of the suppers Literary Club :— * The Knight having
of the Johnson Club at its meetings refused to pay his portion of the
in one of the Fleet Street taverns. reckoning for supper, because he
2 ' He was angry with me (Bos well usually ate no supper at home, John-
writes) for proposing to carry lemons son observed, " Sir John, Sir, is a
with us to Sky, that he might be very undubable man." ' Life, i. 480,
sure to have his lemonade. " Sir, n. i.
(said he) I do not wish to be thought 4 Ante, i. 390.
evil
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 101
evil that had passed in the course of the night's entertainment,
but on the resemblance it bore to a debauch. However, a few
turns in the Temple, and a breakfast at a neighbouring coffee
house enabled me to overcome it. (Page 285.)
Those who were best acquainted with them both [Johnson and
his wife] wondered that Johnson could derive no comfort [on her
death] from the usual resources, reflections on the conditions of
mortality, the instability of human happiness, resignation to the
divine will, and other topics x ; and the more, when they con
sidered, that their marriage was not one of those which in
considerate young people call love-matches, and that she was
more than old enough to be his mother 2 ; that, as their union
had not been productive of children, the medium of a new
relation between them was wanting ; that her inattention to some,
at least, of the duties of a wife, were [sic] evident in the person
of her husband, whose negligence of dress seemed never to have
received the least correction from her, and who, in the sordidness
of his apparel, and the complexion of his linen, even shamed
her 3. For these reasons I have often been inclined to think, that
if this fondness of Johnson for his wife was not dissembled,
it was a lesson that he had learned by rote 4, and that, when
he practised it, he knew not where to stop till he became
ridiculous. It is true, he has celebrated her person in the
word formosce, which he caused to be inscribed on her grave
stone 5 ; but could he, with that imperfection in his sight
which made him say, in the words of Milton, he never saw
1 ' Those common - place topics has little room for useless regret.'
which have never dried a single Letters, ii. 210.
tear.' Gibbon's Misc. Works, i. 2 She was forty-six, he two months
400. short of twenty-six. Life, i. 95, n. 2.
Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale on 3 For her ' particular reverence for
the death of her husband : — * I do cleanliness,' see ante, i. 247.
not exhort you to reason yourself into 4 Boswell ' cannot conceive ' why
tranquillity. We must first pray, and Hawkins should make this assertion,
then labour ; first implore the bless- ' unless it proceeded from a want of
ing of God, and [then employ] those similar feelings in his own breast.'
means which he puts into our hands. Life, i. 234.
Cultivated ground has few weeds ; a s ' Formosae, cultae, ingeniosae,
mind occupied by lawful business piae.' Ib. 1.241, a. 2. See ante, i. 248.
the
102 Extracts from
the human face divine1, have been a witness to her beauty?
which we may suppose had sustained some loss before he
married ; her daughter by her former husband being but little
younger than Johnson himself. As, during her lifetime, he
invited but few of his friends to his house, I never saw her,
but I have been told by Mr. Garrick2, Dr. Hawkesworth, and
others, that there was somewhat crazy in the behaviour of them
both ; profound respect on his part, and the airs of an antiquated
beauty on her's. Johnson had not then been used to the com
pany of women 3, and nothing but his conversation rendered him
tolerable among them : it was, therefore, necessary that he
should practise his best manners to one, whom, as she was
descended from an antient family4, and had brought him
a fortune 5, he thought his superior. This, after all, must be
said, that he laboured to raise his opinion of her to the highest,
by inserting in many of her books of devotion that I have
seen, such endearing memorials as these: 'This was dear
Tetty's book.' * This was a prayer which dear Tetty was
accustomed to say,' not to mention his frequent recollection
of her in his meditations, and the singularity of his prayers
respecting her 6.
To so high a pitch had he worked his remembrance of her,
that he requested a divine, of his acquaintance7, to preach
a sermon at her interment, written by himself, but was dissuaded
from so ostentatious a display of the virtues of a woman, who,
though she was his wife, was but little known. (Page 313.)
Of the beauties of painting, notwithstanding the many eulo-
giums on that art which, after the commencement of his
friendship with Sir Joshua Reynolds, Johnson inserted in his
writings, he had not the least conception ; and this leads me to
mention a fact to the purpose, which I well remember. One
1 Paradise Lost, iii. 44. Peatlingae, apud Leicestrienses,
2 Ante, i. 248. ortae.' Life, i. 241, n. 2.
3 See Life, i. 82, for his intimacy 5 She is said to have brought him
with some of the first families in and about seven or eight hundred pounds,
near Lichfield. Ib. i. 95, n. 3. 6 Ante, i. 14.
4 On her tombstone he describes 7 Dr. Taylor. Ante, i. 476 ; Life,
her as 'Antiqua Jarvisiorum gente, 1.241.
evening
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 103
evening at the club, I came in with a small roll of prints, which,
in the afternoon, I had picked up : I think they were landscapes
of Perelle x, and laying it down with my hat, Johnson's curiosity
prompted him to take it up and unroll it ; he viewed the prints
severally with great attention, and asked me what sort of pleasure
such things could afford me ; I told him, that as representa
tions of nature, containing an assemblage of such particulars as
render rural scenes delightful, they presented to my mind the
objects themselves, and that my imagination realised the pros
pect before me ; he said, that was more than his would do, for
that in his whole life he was never capable of discerning the \/
least resemblance of any kind between a picture and the subject
it was intended to represent 2.
To the delights of music, he was equally insensible : neither
voice nor instrument, nor the harmony of concordant sounds,
had power over his affections, or even to engage his attention.
Of music in general, he has been heard to say, ' it excites in my
mind no ideas, and hinders me from contemplating my own;'
and of a fine singer, or instrumental performer, that ' he had the
merit of a Canary-bird3.' (Page
The uses for which Francis Barber was intended to serve his
master were not very apparent, for Diogenes himself never
wanted a servant less than he seemed to do 4 : the great bushy
wig, which throughout his life he affected to wear, by that close
ness of texture which it had contracted and been suffered to
retain, was ever nearly as impenetrable by a comb as a quickset
1 There were in the seventeenth rapture which the company expressed
century three French engravers of upon hearing the compositions and
the name of Perelle or Perrelle, a performance of Handel did not pro-
father and two sons. Nouv. Biog. ceed wholly from affectation.' War-
Gen. ton's Pope's Works, v. 235 n.
2 This was an exaggeration on the ' Newton, hearing Handel play on
part of either Johnson or Hawkins. the harpsichord, could find nothing
Life, i. 363, n. 3. See also ante, worthy to remark but the elasticity
i. 214. of his fingers. At another time, being
3 Life, 11.409. asked his opinion of poetry, he quoted
'Pope was so very insensible to a sentiment of Barrow, that it was
the charms of music that he once ingenious nonsense.' Id. iii. 176 n.
asked Dr. Arbuthnot, whether the 4 Ante, i. 329.
hedge
104 Extracts from
hedge ; and little of the dust that had once settled on his outer
garments was ever known to have been disturbed by the brush x.
(Page 327.)
The proposal for the Dictionary, and other of his writings,
had exhibited Johnson to view in the character of a poet and
a philologist: to his moral qualities, and his concern for the
interests of religion and virtue, the world were for some time
strangers ; but no sooner were these manifested by the publica
tion of the Rambler and the Adventurer, than he was looked
up to as a master of human life, a practical Christian and
a divine ; his acquaintance was sought by persons of the first
eminence in literature ; and his house, in respect of the . con
versations there, became an academy2. One person, in par
ticular, who seems, for a great part of his life, to have affected
the character of a patron of learned and ingenious men, in
a letter which I have seen, made him a tender of his friendship
in terms to this effect : — ' That having perused many of his
writings, and thence conceived a high opinion of his learning,
his genius, and moral qualities, if Mr. Johnson was inclined to
enlarge the circle of his acquaintance, he [the letter-writer]
should be glad to be admitted into the number of his friends,
and to receive a visit from him.' — This person was Mr. Doding-
ton, afterwards lord Melcombe, the value and honour of whose
patronage, to speak the truth, may in some degree be estimated
by his diary lately published3. How Johnson received this
1 Charlotte Burney, writing in 1 777 ' men of letters have here [in London]
or 1778, says : — ' Dr. Johnson was no place of rendezvous ; and are,
immensely smart, for him— for he indeed, sunk and forgotten in the
had not only a very decent tidy suit general torrent of the world.' Bur-
of cloathes on, but his hands, face, ton's Hume, ii. 385. For Johnson's
and linen were clean, and he treated * levee ' see ante, i. 414 ; Life, ii. 118.
us with his worsted wig, which Mr. 3 Horace Walpole wrote on June 3,
Thrale made him a present of, be- 1784 (Letter s,v\\\. 479) : — 'A nephew
cause it scarce ever gets out of curl, of Lord Melcombe's heir has pub-
'and he generally diverts himself with lished that Lord's Diary. Though
laying [sic] down just after he has drawn by his own hand, and certainly
got a fresh wig on.' Early Diary of meant to flatter himself, it is a truer
F. Burney, ii. 287. portrait than any of his hirelings
2 Hume, in 1767, complained that would have given. Never was such
invitation
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 105
invitation, I know not : as it was conveyed in very handsome
expressions, it required some apology for declining it, and
I cannot but think he framed one. (Page 328.)
Invitations to dine with such of those as he liked, he so seldom
declined, that to a friend of his, he said, ' I never but once, upon
a resolution to employ myself in study, balked x an invitation out
to dinner, and then I stayed at home and did nothing V (Page
341.)
Johnson looked upon eating as a very serious business,
enjoyed the pleasure of a splendid table equally with most men.
It was, at no time of his life, pleasing to see him at a meal ; the ,
greediness with which he ate, his total inattention to those
among whom he was seated, and his profound silence in the
hour of refection, were circumstances that at the instant degraded
him, and shewed him to be more a sensualist than a philo
sopher 3. Moreover, he was a lover of tea to an excess hardly ^
credible ; whenever it appeared, he was almost raving, and by
his impatience to be served, his incessant calls for those in
gredients which make that liquor palatable, and the haste with
which he swallowed it down, he seldom failed to make that
a fatigue to every one else 4, which was intended as a general
a composition of vanity, versatility, 3 Percy remarks on the passage in
and servility. In short, there is but the Life (i. 468) where Boswell de-
one feature wanting — his wit, of which scribes Johnson's voracious eating : —
in his whole book there are not three ' This is extremely exaggerated. He
sallies. I often said of Lord Hervey ate heartily, having a good appetite,
and Dodington, that they were the but not with the voraciousness de-
only two I ever knew who were al- scribed by Mr. Boswell ; all whose
ways aiming at wit, and yet generally extravagant accounts must be read
found it.' with caution and abatement.' Ander-
1 Johnson gives as the third mean- son's Johnson, ed. 1815, p. 471.
ing of balk 'to omit, or refuse any- 4 In John Knox's Tour through
thing.' Hawkins uses \\. post, p. 115. the Highlands, ed. 1787, p. 143, it is
2 * I fancy,' writes Dr. Maxwell, * he stated that at Dunvegan ' Lady Mac-
must have read and wrote chiefly in leod, who had repeatedly helped
the night, for I can scarcely recollect Dr. Johnson to sixteen dishes or up*
that he ever refused going with me wards of tea, asked him if a small
to a tavern.' Life,\\. 119. For the basin would not save him trouble,
hours at which he wrote see post in and be more agreeable. " I wonder,
Steevens's Anecdotes. Madam," answered he roughly, " why
refreshment
io6 Extracts from
refreshment. Such signs of effeminacy as these, suited but ill
with the appearance of a man, who, for his bodily strength and
stature, has been compared to Polyphemus. (Page 355.)
All this while, the booksellers, who by his own confession
were his best friends1, had their eyes upon Johnson, and re
flected with some concern on what seemed to them a mis
application of his talents. The furnishing magazines, reviews,
and even news-papers, with literary intelligence, and the authors
of books, who could not write them for themselves, with dedica
tions and prefaces, they looked on as employments beneath him,
who had attained to such eminence as a writer ; they, therefore,
in the year 1756, found out for him such a one as seemed to
afford a prospect both of amusement and profit : this was an
edition of Shakespeare's dramatic works, which, by a concur
rence of circumstances, was now become necessary, to answer
the increasing demand of the public for the writings of that
author2
A stranger to Johnson's character and temper would have
thought, that the study of an author, whose skill in the science
of human life was so deep, and whose perfections were so many
and various as to be above the reach of all praise, must have
been the most pleasing employment that his imagination could
suggest, but it was not so : in a visit that he one rnorning made
to me, I congratulated him on his being now engaged in a work
that suited his genius, and that, requiring none of that severe
application which his Dictionary had condemned him to, I
all the ladies ask me such imperti- Dictionary? His answer was, " I
nent questions. It is to save your- am sorry too. But it was very well,
selves trouble, Madam, and not me." The booksellers are generous liberal-
The lady was silent and went on with minded men." ' Life, i. 304.
her task.' 2 Ante, i. 415. ' The seventeenth
Boswell tells nothing of this ; it century had been satisfied with four
is probable that the number of the editions of his collected plays. In the
cups and the roughness of the answer first hundred years after his death
were increased by tradition. Ante, there were but six ; in the next fifty
ii. 76. years there were three and twenty.'
1 ' I once said to him, " I am sorry, Writers and Readers, by George
Sir, you did not get more for your Birkbeck Hill, p. 64.
doubted
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 107
doubted not would be executed con amore. — His answer was,
' I look upon this as I did upon the Dictionary : it is all work,
and my inducement to it is not love or desire of fame, but the
want of money, which is the only motive to writing that I know
of V — And the event was evidence to me, that in this speech he
declared his genuine sentiments ; for neither in the first place
did he set himself to collect early editions of his author 2, old
plays, translations of histories, and of the classics, and other
materials necessary for his purpose, nor could he be prevailed on
to enter into that course of reading, without which it seemed
impossible to come at the sense of his author3. It was pro
voking to all his friends to see him waste his days, his weeks, and
his months so long, that they feared a mental lethargy had
seized him, out of which he would never recover. In this,
however, they were happily deceived, for, after two years in
activity, they found him roused to action, and engaged — not in
the prosecution of the work, for the completion whereof he stood
doubly bound, but in a new one, the furnishing a series of
periodical essays, intitled, and it may be thought not improperly,
* The Idler Y as his motive to the employment was aversion to
a labour he had undertaken, though in the execution, it must be
owned, it merited a better name. (Page 361.)
About this time he had, from a friend who highly esteemed
him, the offer of a living5, of which he might have rendered
himself capable by entering into holy orders : it was a rectory,
in a pleasant country, and of such a yearly value as might have
tempted one in better circumstances than himself to accept it ;
but he had scruples about the duties of the ministerial function,
that he could not, after deliberation, overcome. fl have not/
said he, ' the requisites for the office, and I cannot, in my
1 Life, iii. 19 ; ante, ii. 90. When have not found the collectors of these
he had finished his Shakespeare he rarities very communicative.' Works,
wrote:— 'To tell the truth, as I felt v. 146.
no solicitude about this work, I re- 3 Ante, i. 473.
ceive no great comfort from its con- 4 Ante, \, 415 ; Life, i. 330.
elusion.' Letters, i. 123. 5 It was a living in Lincolnshire,
2 ' I collated such copies as I could offered him by Bennet Langton's
procure, and wished for more, but father. Ib. i. 320.
conscience
io8 Extracts from
conscience, shear that flock which I am unable to feed.' — Upon
conversing with him on that inability which was his reason for
declining the offer, it was found to be a suspicion of his patience
to undergo the fatigue of catechising and instructing a great
number of poor ignorant persons, who, in religious matters, had,
perhaps, every thing to learn. (Page 365.)
He had removed, about the beginning of the year 1760, to
chambers two doors down the Inner-Temple lane ; and I have
been told by his neighbour at the corner, that during the time
he dwelt there, more enquiries were made at his shop for
Mr. Johnson, than for all the inhabitants put together of both
the Inner and Middle Temple x. (Page 383.)
Johnson had, early in his life, been a dabbler in physic 2,
and laboured under some secret bodily infirmities that gave him
occasion once to say to me, that he knew not what it was to be
totally free from pain3. He now drew into a closer intimacy
with him a man, with whom he had been acquainted from the
year I7464, one of the lowest practitioners in the art of healing
that ever sought a livelihood by it : him he consulted in all that
related to his health, and made so necessary to him as hardly to
be able to live without him.
The name of this person was Robert Levett. An account of
him is given in the Gentleman's Magazine for February 1785 :
an earlier than that, I have now lying before me, in a letter
from a person in the country to Johnson, written in answer to
one in which he had desired to be informed of some particulars
respecting his friend Levett, then lately deceased 5. The sub
stance of this information is as follows :
He was born at Kirk Ella, a parish about five miles distant
from Hull, and lived with his parents till about twenty years of
age. He had acquired some knowledge of the Latin language,
1 Life, i. 350, n. 3 ; Letters, i. 90, end of his life : — ' My health has
n. 3 ; ante, i. 416. been from my twentieth year such
2 Not only early, but through most as has seldom afforded me a single
of his life, 'he was a great dabbler day of ease.' Ib. iv. 147.
in physic.' Life, iii. 152. 4 Life, iv. 137.
3 He wrote to Hector towards the 5 Ib. iv. 143 ; Letters, ii. 243.
and
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 109
and had a propensity to learning, which his parents not being
able to gratify, he went to live as a shopman with a woollen-
draper at Hull : with him he stayed two years, during which
tirne he learned from a neighbour of his master somewhat of the
practice of physic : at the end thereof he came to London, with
a view possibly to improve himself in that profession ; but by
some strange accident was led to pursue another course, and
became steward, or some other upper servant, to the then lord
Cardigan [or Cadogan] ; and having saved some money, he
took a resolution to travel, and visited France and Italy for the
purpose, as his letters mention, of gaining experience in physic,
and, returning to London with a valuable library which he had
^collected abroad, placed one of his brothers apprentice to a
mathematical-instrument maker, and provided for the education
of another. After this he went to Paris, and, for improvement,
attended the hospitals in that city. At the end of five years he
returned to England, and taking lodgings in the house of an
attorney in Northumberland court, near Charing cross, he
became a practicer of physic. The letter adds, that he was
about seventy-eight at the time of his death.
The account of Levett in the Gentleman's Magazine is anony
mous ; I nevertheless give it verbatim, and mean hereafter to
insert a letter of Johnson's to Dr. Lawrence, notifying his death,
and stanzas of his writing on that occasion x.
' Mr. Levett, though an Englishman by birth, became early
in life a waiter at a coffee-house in Paris. The surgeons who
frequented it, finding him of an inquisitive turn, and attentive
to their conversation, made a purse for him, and gave him some
instructions in their art. They afterwards furnished him with
the means of other knowledge, by procuring him free admission
to such lectures in pharmacy and anatomy as were read by the
ablest professors of that period. Hence his introduction to
a business, which afforded him a continual, though slender
maintenance. Where the middle part of his life was spent, is
uncertain. He resided, however, above twenty years under the
roof of Johnson, who never wished him to be regarded as an
1 Life, iv. 137.
inferior
no Extracts from
inferior, or treated him like a dependent x. He breakfasted with
the doctor every morning, and perhaps was seen no more by
him till mid-night. Much of the day was employed in attend
ance on his patients, who were chiefly of the lowest rank of
tradesmen. The remainder of his hours he dedicated to Hunter's
lectures2, and to as many different opportunities of improve
ment, as he could meet with on the same gratuitous conditions.
"All his medical knowledge," said Johnson, "and it is not in
considerable 3, was obtained through the ear. Though he buys
books, he seldom looks into them, or discovers any power by
which he can be supposed to judge of an author's merit."
' Before he became a constant inmate of the Doctor's house,
he married, when he was near sixty, a woman of the town, who
had persuaded him (notwithstanding their place of congress was
a small-coal shed in Fetter-lane) that she was nearly related to
a man of fortune, but was injuriously kept by him out of large
possessions. It is almost needless to add, that both parties were
disappointed in their views. If Levett took her for an heiress,
who in time might be rich, she regarded him as a physician
already in considerable practice. — Compared with the marvels
of this transaction, as Johnson himself declared when relating
them, the tales in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments seem
familiar occurrences. Never was infant more completely duped
than our hero. He had not been married four months, before
a writ was taken out against him, for debts incurred by his
wife. — He was secreted, and his friend then procured him
a protection from a foreign minister4. In a short time after-
1 ' Dr. Johnson has frequently ob- 4 'May 13, 1771. A cause was
served, that Levett was indebted to determined in the King's Bench, in
him for nothing more than house- favour of a Merchant who had de-
room, his share in a penny loaf at mands on a person protected by a
breakfast, and now and then a dinner foreign Ambassador, that person not
on a Sunday.' Note by Hawkins. being a real servant brought over
2 Both William Hunter and his with the Ambassador, but having
brother John lectured. For William since procured his protection. Of
Hunter, see Letters, ii. 339. all the causes determined in law
3 ' He had acted for many years in within these twenty years perhaps
the capacity of surgeon and apothe- no one is of more importance than
cary to Johnson, under the direction the present.' Gentleman 's Magazine,
of Dr. Lawrence.' Note by Hawkins. 1771, p. 235.
wards,
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. in
wards, she ran away from him, and was tried, providentially, in
his opinion, for picking pockets at the Old Bailey. Her hus
band was, with difficulty, prevented from attending the court,
in the hope she would be hanged. She pleaded her own cause,
and was acquitted ; a separation between this ill-starred couple
took place ; and Dr. Johnson then took Levett home, where he
continued till his death, which happened suddenly, without
pain, Jan. 17, 1782. His vanity in supposing that a young
woman of family and fortune should be enamoured of him,
Dr. Johnson thought, deserved some check. — As no relations of
his were known to Johnson, he advertised for them x. In the
course of a few weeks an heir at law appeared, and ascertained
his title to what effects the deceased had left behind.
' Levett's character was rendered valuable by repeated proof
of honesty, tenderness, and gratitude to his benefactor, as well
as by an unwearied diligence in his profession2. — His single
failing was, an occasional departure from sobriety. Johnson
would observe, he was, perhaps, the only man who ever became
intoxicated through motives of prudence. He reflected, that if
he refused the gin or brandy offered him by some of his patients,
he could have been no gainer by their cure, as they might have
had nothing else to bestow on him. This habit of taking a fee,
in whatever shape it was exhibited, could not be put off by
advice or admonition of any kind. He would swallow what he
did not like, nay, what he knew would injure him, rather than
go home with an idea, that his skill had been exerted without
recompense. " Had (said Johnson) all his patients maliciously
combined to reward him with meat and strong liquors instead of
money, he would either have burst, like the dragon in the
Apocrypha 3, through repletion, or been scorched up, like Portia,
by swallowing fire4." But let not from hence an imputation
of rapaciousness be fixed upon him. Though he took all that
1 Life, iv. 143. 3 Bel and the Dragon, verse 27.
2 'He was an old and faithful 'With this she fell distract,
friend,' Johnson recorded in his And, her attendants absent,
Diary. Ante, i. 102. ' He was very swallow'd fire.'
useful to the poor,' he wrote to Mr. Julius Caesar, Act iv. sc. 3, 1. 155.
Langton. Life, iv. 145.
was
ii2 Extracts from
was offered him, he demanded nothing from the poor, nor was
known in any instance to have enforced the payment of even
what was strictly his due.
' His person was middle-sized and thin ; his visage swarthy,
adust and corrugated. His conversation, except on professional
subjects, barren. When in deshabille, he might have been mis
taken for an alchemist, whose complexion had been hurt by the
fumes of the crucible, and whose clothes had suffered from the
sparks of the furnace.
* Such was Levett, whose whimsical frailty, if weighed against
his good and useful qualities, was
"A floating atom, dust that falls unheeded
Into the adverse scale, nor "shakes the balance."
Irene, Act i. sc. 3.'
To this character I here add as a supplement to it, a dictum
of Johnson respecting Levett, viz. that his external appearance
and behaviour were such, that he disgusted the rich, and terrified
the poor x.
But notwithstanding all these offensive particulars, Johnson,
whose credulity in some instances was as great as his incredulity
in others, conceived of him as a skilful medical professor, and
thought himself happy in having so near his person one who was
to him, not solely a physician, a surgeon, or an apothecary, but
all. In extraordinary cases he, however, availed himself of the
assistance of his valued friend Dr. Lawrence, a man of whom, in
respect of his piety, learning, and skill in his profession, it may
almost be said, the world was not worthy, inasmuch as it suffered
his talents, for the whole of his life, to remain, in a great
measure, unemployed, and himself end his days in sorrow and
obscurity2. . . .
In his [Dr. Lawrence's] endeavours to attain to eminence, it
1 Percy described Levett as ' a fellow, but I have a good regard
modest, reserved man ; humble and for him ; for his brutality is in his
unaffected, ready to execute any manners, not his mind.' Mme.
commission for Johnson, and grate- D'Arblay's Diary, i. 114.
ful for his patronage.' Anderson's 2 Ante, i. 104 ; Life, ii. 296, n. I ;
Johnson, ed. 1815, p. 181. 'Levett, iv. 143.
Madam, (said Johnson), is a brutal
was
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 113
was his misfortune to fail: he was above those arts by which
popularity is acquired, and had besides some personal defects and
habits which stood in his way; a vacuity of countenance very
unfavourable to an opinion of his learning or sagacity, and
certain convulsive motions of the head and features that gave
pain to the beholders, and drew off attention to all that he
said. . . .
The sincere and lasting friendship that subsisted between
Johnson and Levett, may serve to shew, that although a simi
larity of dispositions and qualities has a tendency to beget
affection, or something very nearly resembling it, it may be
contracted and subsist where this inducement is wanting ; for
1 hardly were ever two men less like each other, in this respect,
than were they. Levett had not an understanding capable of
comprehending the talents of Johnson : the mind of Johnson
was therefore, as to him, a blank ; and Johnson, had the eye
of his mind been more penetrating than it was, could not
discern, what did not exist, any particulars in Levett's character
that at all resembled his own. He had no learning, and con
sequently was an unfit companion for a learned man ; and
though it may be said, that having lived for some years abroad,
he must have seen and remarked many things that would have
afforded entertainment in the relation, this advantage was
counterbalanced by an utter inability for continued conversation,
taciturnity being one of the most obvious features in his char
acter x : the consideration of all which particulars almost impels
me to say, that Levett admired Johnson because others admired
him, and that Johnson in pity loved Levett, because few others
could find any thing in him to love.
And here I cannot forbear remarking, that, almost throughout
his life, poverty and distressed circumstances seemed to be the
strongest of all recommendations to his favour. When asked
by one of his most intimate friends, how he could bear to be
1 ' He was (says Boswell) of a to Mrs. Thrale : — ' My house has lost
strange grotesque appearance, stiff Levett, a man who took interest in
and formal in his manner, and seldom everything, and therefore ready at
said a word while any company was conversation.' Letters, ii. 309.
present.' Life> 1.243. Johnson wrote
VOL. II. I surrounded
ii4 Extracts from
surrounded by such necessitous and undeserving people as he
had about him, his answer was, * If I did not assist them no one
else would, and they must be lost for want.' (Page 396.)
Johnson was a great lover of penitents x, and of all such men
as, in their conversation, made professions of piety2; of this
man 3 he would say, that he was one of the most pious of all his
acquaintance, but in this, as he frequently was in the judgment
he formed of others, he was mistaken. It is possible that
Southwell might, in his conversation, express such sentiments of
religion and moral obligation, as served to shew that he was not
an infidel, but he seldom went sober to bed 4, and as seldom rose
from it before noon.
He was also an admirer of such as he thought well-bred men.
What was his notion of good breeding I could never learn. If
it was not courtesy and affability, it could to him be nothing ;
for he was an incompetent judge of graceful attitudes and
motions, and of the ritual of behaviour. Of lord Southwell 5,
the brother of the above person, and of Tom Hervey, a pro
fligate, worthless man6, the author of the letter to Sir Thomas
Hanmer 7, and who had nothing in his external appearance that
could in the least recommend him, he was used to say, they
were each of them a model for the first man of quality in the
kingdom 8. (Page 406.)
1 Life, iv. 406, n. I. 6 ' Tom Hervey, who died t' other
2 Reynolds said that Johnson * ap- day, though a vicious man, was one
peared to have little suspicion of hy- of the genteelest men that ever lived.'
pocrisy in religion.' Ante, ii. 9, n. I. Ib. ii. 341. See ante, i. 254.
3 Edmund South well. Letters, \. 205. Horace Walpole wrote on Jan. 24,
4 Johnson said of his old school- ij J $ (Letters, vi. 182): — 'Tom Hervey
fellow, the Rev. Charles Congreve, is dead ; after sending for his wife,
' He has an elderly woman . . . who and re -acknowledging her in pathetic
encourages him in drinking, in which heroics.'
he is very willing to be encouraged ; 7 Life, ii. 32, n. I ; 33, n. 2.
not that he gets drunk, for he is 8 ' Garrick used to tell, that John-
.a very pious man, but he is always son said of an actor, who played Sir
muddy.' Life, ii. 460. Harry Wildair at Lichfield, " There
5 ' Lord Southwell,' he said, * was is a courtly vivacity about the fellow";
the highest-bred man without in- when, in fact, according to Garrick's
science that I ever was in company account, " he was the most vulgar
with ; the most qualitied I ever saw.' ruffian that ever went upon boards" '
iv. 173. Ib. ii. 465.
Johnson
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 115
Johnson was now at ease in his circumstances I : he wanted his
usual motive to impel him to the exertion of his talents, neces
sity, and he sunk into indolence. Whoever called in on him at
about mid-day, found him and Levett at breakfast, Johnson in
deshabille, as just risen from bed, and Levett filling out tea for
himself and his patron alternately, no conversation passing
between them. All that visited him at these hours were
welcome. A night's rest, and breakfast, seldom failed to refresh
and fit him for discourse, and whoever withdrew went too
soon2. His invitations to dinners abroad were numerous, and
he seldom balked them. At evening parties, where were no
cards, he very often made one; and from these, when once
engaged, most unwillingly retired.
In the relaxation of mind, which almost any one might have
foreseen would follow the grant of his pension 3, he made little
account of that lapse of time, on which, in many of his papers,
he so severely moralizes. And, though he was so exact an
observer of the passing minutes, as frequently, after his coming
from church, to note in his diary how many the service took up
in reading, and the sermon in preaching 4 ; he seemed to forget
how many years had passed since he had begun to take in sub
scriptions for his edition of Shakespeare. Such a torpor had
seized his faculties, as not all the remonstrances of his friends
were able to cure : applied to some minds, they would have
burned like caustics, but Johnson felt them not 5. (Page 435.)
He removed from the Temple into a house in Johnson's court,
Fleet-street, and invited thither his friend Mrs. Williams 6. An
1 Through his pension. Ante, i. 4 This diary is not in print.
417 ; Life, i. 372. 2 Id. ii. 1 18. 5 Life, i. 319.
3 This ' relaxation of mind ' pre- 6 She had lived with him in Gough
ceded his pension. He had for some Square (Life, i. 232), but had gone
time been * living in poverty, total into lodgings when he went into
idleness and the pride of literature.' chambers, first in Staple Inn, then
Ante, i. 416. He brought the Idler in Gray's Inn, and lastly in Inner
to an end on April 5, 1760; after that Temple Lane. 7#. i. 350, «. 3. In
he did next to nothing for some years. Scotland, referring to his house in
His Shakespeare was not published Johnson's Court, he described him-
till 1765. His pension was granted self as 'Johnson of that Ilk.' Id. ii.
in the summer of 1762. 427, n. 2.
I 2 upper
n6 Extracts from
upper room, which had the advantages of a good light and free
air, he fitted up for a study 1, and furnished with books, chosen
with so little regard to editions or their external appearance, as
shewed they were intended for use, and that he disdained the
ostentation of learning. Here he was in a situation and circum
stances that enabled him to enjoy the visits of his friends, and
to receive them in a manner suitable to the rank and condition
of many of them. A silver standish, and some useful plate,
which he had been prevailed on to accept as pledges of kindness
from some who most esteemed him, together with furniture that
would not have disgraced a better dwelling, banished those
appearances of squalid indigence, which, in his less happy days,
disgusted those who came to see him 2.
In one of his diaries he noted down a resolution to take a seat
in the church; this he might possibly do about the time of this
his removal. The church he frequented was that of St. Clement
Danes3, which, though not his parish-church, he preferred to
that of the Temple, which I recommended to him, as being free
from noise, and, in other respects, more commodious. His only
reason was, that in the former he was best known. He was not
constant in his attendance on divine worship 4 ; but, from an
opinion peculiar to himself, and which he once intimated to me,
seemed to wait for some secret impulse as a motive to it. ...
The Sundays which he passed at home were, nevertheless,
spent in private exercises of devotion5, and sanctified by acts
of charity of a singular kind : on that day he accepted of no
1 Ante, \. 37. 4 Ante, ii. 94, n. I.
2 Boswell, dining with him in 1781, 5 'He was accustomed on these
says that ' he produced now for the days to read the Scriptures, and par-
first time some handsome silver ticularly the Greek Testament, with
salvers, which, he told me, he had the paraphrase of Erasmus. Very late
bought fourteen years ago ; so it was in his life he formed a resolution to
a great day.' Life, iv. 92. See also read the Bible through, which he
ib. ii. 215, where Boswell, dining with confessed to me he had never done ;
him for the first time in 1773, 'found at the same time lamenting, that
every thing in very good order,' and he had so long neglected to peruse,
ib. ii. 376, where, occupying a room what he called the charter of his
in his house in 1775, he ' found every- salvation.' Note by Hawkins. See
thing in excellent order.' ante, i. 59.
3 Ante, i. 62, n. 6 ; Life, ii. 214.
invitation
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 117
invitation abroad, but gave a dinner to such of his poor friends
as might else have gone without one J. (Page 452.)
To impress the more strongly on his mind the value of time,
and the use it behoved every wise man to make of it, he in
dulged himself in an article of luxury, which, as far as my
observation and remembrance will serve me, he never enjoyed
till this late period of his life : it was a watch, which he caused
to be made for him, in the year 1768, by those eminent artists
Mudge and Button : it was of metal, and the outer case covered
with tortoise-shell ; he paid for it seventeen guineas. On the
dial-plate thereof, which was of enamel, he caused to be inscribed,
in the original Greek, these words of our blessed Saviour, Ni>f
yap epx^rai, but with the mistake of a letter /* for v : the meaning
of them is, ' For the night cometh.' This, though a memento
of great importance, he, about three years after, thought pedantic ;
he, therefore, exchanged the dial-plate for one in which the in
scription was omitted 2. (Page 460.)
Novelty, and variety of occupations, were objects that engaged
his attention, and from these he never failed to extract informa
tion. Though born and bred in a city3, he well understood both
the theory and practice of agriculture, and even the management
1 Mrs. Piozzi says that ' Dr. John- son spoke well of \Life, iv. 77]. The
son, commonly spending the middle watch-maker in gratitude exerted
of the week at our house, kept his himself in making it. For Thomas
numerous family in Fleet-street upon Mudge, the watch-maker, see Letters,
a settled allowance ; but returned to i. 93, n. 2.
them every Saturday to give them Canon Pailye of Lichfield told Mr.
three good dinners and his company, Croker that he had purchased the
before he came back to us on the watch from Barber. Croker's Bos-
Monday night.' Ante, i. 205. well, x. 106.
2 Life, ii. 57. For Person's humorous letter about
In R. Polwhele's Traditions, p. the watch, see ante, ii. 81.
353, an extract is given from a letter The same Greek inscription Scott
dated April 29, 1794, in which the put on his dial in his garden at Abbots-
writer, a Christ Church man, B ford. Ante, i. 123,72.4.
says that he has bought Johnson's 3 Lichfield was so small a city that
watch from Francis Barber, ' who is a few minutes' walk would have taken
now settled at Lichfield, and I am him into the fields. Even so late as
afraid in great want.' The watch, he 1781 it did not contain 4,000 in-
says, was made by Mudge, the brother habitants. Harwood's History of
of Dr. Mudge, whose sermons John- Lichfield, p. 380.
of
n8 Extracts from
i
of a farm : he could describe, with great accuracy, the process of
malting ; and, had necessity driven him to it, could have thatched
a dwelling T. Of field recreations, such as hunting, setting, and
shooting, he would discourse like a sportsman, though his personal
defects rendered him, in a great measure, incapable of deriving
pleasure from any such exercises.
But he had taken a very comprehensive view of human life
and manners, and. that he was well acquainted with the views
and pursuits of all classes and characters of men, his writings
abundantly shew. This kind of knowledge he was ever desirous
of increasing, even as he advanced in years : to gratify it, he was
accessible to all comers, and yielded to the invitations of such of
his friends as had residences in the country, to vary his course
of living, and pass the pleasanter months of the year in the
shades of obscurity.
In these visits, where there were children in the family, he
took great delight in examining them as to their progress in
learning, or, to make use of a term almost obsolete, of apposing
them 2. To this purpose, I once heard him say, that in a visit
to Mrs. Percy, who had the care of one of the young princes, at
the queen's house 3, the prince of Wales 4, being then a child,
came into the room, and began to play about ; when Johnson,
with his usual curiosity, took an opportunity of asking him what
i books he was reading, and, in particular, enquired as to his
knowledge of the Scriptures : the prince, in his answers, gave
him great satisfaction ; and, as to the last, said, that part of his
daily exercises was to read Ostervald 5. In many families into
1 In the Isle of Skye he described put grammatical questions to a
the durability of a roof thatched with boy is called to pose him ; and we
Lincolnshire reeds. Life, v. 263. In now use pose for puzzle' Johnson's
his youth he had worked at book- Dictionary.
binding. Ante, i. 361. For his It is preserved in Apposition Day,
varied knowledge see Life, v. 215, the term still applied to Speech Day
246, 263. Much of it he had, no at St. Paul's School,
doubt, acquired from the books 3 Buckingham House, on the same
which he read for his Dictionary. site as the present Buckingham
For his ' talking ostentatiously' about Palace. Life, ii. 33 ; Letters, i. 414,
granulating gunpowder, see ib. v. 124. n. 2. See also ante, ii. 64.
2 ' This word is not now in use, 4 Afterwards George IV.
except that in some schools to 5 Burnet describes Ostervald as
which
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 119
which he went, the fathers were often desirous of producing their
sons to him for his opinion of their parts, and of the proficiency
they had made at school, which, in frequent instances, came out
to be but small. He once told me, that being at the house of
a friend, whose son in his school-vacation was come home, the
father spoke of this child as a lad of pregnant parts, and said,
that he was well versed in the classics, and acquainted with
history, in the study whereof he took great delight. Having
this information, Johnson, as a test of the young scholar's attain
ments, put this question to him : ' At what time did the
heathen oracles cease ? '- —The boy, not in the least daunted,
answered : ' At the dissolution of religious houses V (Page
469.)
About this time [1775-6], Dr. Johnson changed his dwelling
in Johnson's court, for a somewhat larger in Bolt court 2, Fleet
street, where he commenced an intimacy with the landlord of it,
a very worthy and sensible man, some time since deceased,
Mr. Edmund Allen the printer 3. Behind it was a garden, which
he took delight in watering; a room on the ground-floor was
assigned to Mrs. Williams, and the whole of the two pair of stairs
floor was made a repository for his books ; one of the rooms
thereon being his study. Here, in the intervals of his residence
' the most eminent ecclesiastic ' of the Lord Bishop of Chester.* Gentle-
State of Neufchatel, and as 'one of man's Magazine, 1771, p. 235.
the best and most judicious divines Horace Walpole, writing of the
of the age : he was bringing that Prince at the age of nineteen, says
Church to a near agreement with our (Journal of the Reign of George III,
forms of worship.' Burnet's History ii. 503) :— ' Nothing was coarser than
of His Own Time, ed. 1818, iv. his conversation and phrases; and
165. it made men smile to find that in the
Many of his works were translated palace of piety and pride his Royal
into English. Highness had learnt nothing but the
The Prince of Wales was but eight dialect of footmen and grooms.'
years old, when ' orders were given x Mrs. Piozzi tells a similar story,
from the Lord Chamberlain's Office Ante, i. 303.
for a Chaplain in waiting to attend 2 Life, ii. 427.
at the Queen's Palace to read prayers, 3 On his death he said : ' I have
for the first time, to the Prince of lost one of my best and tenderest
Wales, in the absence of their friends.' Ib. iv. 354.
Majesties, under the direction of the
at
120 Extracts from
at Streatham x, he received the visits of his friends, and, to the
most intimate of them, sometimes gave not inelegant dinners.
Being at ease in his circumstances, and free from that solicitude
which had embittered the former part of his life, he sunk into
•) indolence, till his faculties seemed to be impaired : deafness grew
upon him ; long intervals of mental absence interrupted his con
versation, and it was difficult to engage his attention to any
subject 2. His friends, from these symptoms, concluded, that his
lamp was emitting its last rays, but the lapse of a short period
gave them ample proofs to the contrary 3. (Page 531.)
That this celebrated friendship [between Dr. Johnson and
Mr. Thrale] subsisted so long as it did, was a subject of wonder
to most of Johnson's intimates, for such were his habits of living,
that he was by no means a desirable inmate. His unmanly
^thirst for tea made him very troublesome. At Streatham, he
would suffer the mistress of the house to sit up and make it for
^ him, till two or three hours after midnight 4. When retired to
rest, he indulged himself in the dangerous practice of reading in
bed 5. It was a very hard matter to get him decently dressed by
dinner-time, even when select companies were invited ; and no
one could be sure, that in his table-conversation with strangers,
he would not, by contradiction, or the general asperity of his
behaviour, offend them 6.
These irregularities were not only borne with by Mr. Thrale,
but he seemed to think them amply atoned for by the honour he
derived from such a guest as no table in the three kingdoms
could produce ; but, he dying, it was not likely that the same
sentiments and opinions should descend to those of his family
who were left behind. (Page 561.)
1 Life, i. 493. 2 Life, iii. 98.
' My friend bade me welcome, but 3 By the Lives of the Poets.
struck me quite dumb, 4 This is a gross exaggeration of
With tidings that Johnson and Burke what Mrs. Piozzi wrote. Ante, i. 329.
would not come ; Hawkins apparently never visited
"For I knew it," he cried, "both the Thrales (see Miss Hawkins's
eternally fail, Memoirs, i. 65 «.), so that his account
The one with his speeches, and is second-hand,
t'other with Thrale." ' 5 Ante, i. 307.
Goldsmith's Haunch of Venison. 6 Ante, i. 242.
The
Hawkins's Life of Johnson.
121
/-The visits of idle, and some of them very worthless persons,
^ere never unwelcome to Johnson ; and though they interrupted
feim in his studies and meditations, yet, as they gave him oppor
tunities of discourse, and furnished him with intelligence, he strove
K^-ther to protract than shorten or discountenance them ; and,
when abroad, such was the laxity of his mind, that he consented
to the doing of many things, otherwise indifferent, for the avowed
reason that they would drive on time I. (Page 565.)
In his return to London, he stopped at Lichfield, and from
thence wrote to me several letters 2, that served but to prepare
me for meeting him in a worse state of health than I had ever
seen him in. The concluding paragraph of the last of them is
as follows : ' I am relapsing into the dropsy very fast, and shall
make such haste to town that it will be useless to write to me ;
but when I come, let me have the benefit of your advice, and the
consolation of your company.' [Dated Nov. 7, 1784.] After
about a fortnight's stay there, he took his leave of that city, and
of Mrs. Porter, whom he never afterwards saw, and arrived in
town on the sixteenth day of November 3.
After the declaration he had made of his intention to provide
for his servant Frank, and before his going into the country,
I had frequently pressed him to make a will, and had gone so
far as to make a draft of one, with blanks for the names of the
executors and residuary legatee, and directing in what manner it
was to be executed and attested ; but he was exceedingly averse
to this business ; and, while he was in Derbyshire, I repeated my
solicitations, for this purpose, by letters. When he arrived in
town he had done nothing in it 4, and, to what I formerly said,
1 'When I, in a low-spirited fit,
was talking to him with indifference
of the pursuits which generally en
gage us in a course of action, and in
quiring a reason for taking so much
trouble ; " Sir." said he, in an ani
mated tone, "it is driving on the
system of life." ' Life, iv. 112.
2 None of these have been pub
lished.
3 Life, iv. 377.
4 Five years earlier Johnson had
been urging Thrale to make his will.
He wrote to Mrs. Thrale : — ' Some
days before our last separation Mr.
Thrale and I had one evening an
earnest discourse about the business
with Mr. Scrase [a solicitor]. . . . Do
not let those fears prevail which you
know to be unreasonable ; a will
brings the end of life no nearer.'
Letters, ii. 115.
I now
122 Extracts from
\ now added, that he had never mentioned to me the disposal of
the residue of his estate, which, after the purchase of an annuity
for Frank, I found would be something considerable, and that he
would do well to bequeath it to his relations. His answer was,
* I care not what becomes of the residue.' A few days after,
it appeared that he had executed the draft, the blanks remaining,
with all the solemnities of a real will. I could get him no farther,
and thus, for some time, the matter rested.
He had scarce arrived in town, before it was found to be too
true, that he was relapsing into a dropsy ; and farther, that he
was at times grievously afflicted with an asthma. Under an
apprehension that his end was approaching, he enquired of
Dr. Brocklesby, with great earnestness indeed, how long he might
probably live, but could obtain no other than unsatisfactory
answers x : and, at the same time, if I remember right, under
a seeming great pressure of mind, he thus addressed him, in the
words of Shakespeare :
* Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd ;
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote,
Cleanse the full bosom of that perilous stuff,
Which weighs upon the heart ? '
Macbeth [Act v. sc. 3].
To which the doctor, who was nearly as well read in the above
author as himself, readily replied,
' Therein the patient
Must minister to himself.*
Upon which Johnson exclaimed—' Well applied :— that's more
than poetically true 2.'
He had, from the month of July in this year, marked the
progress of his diseases, in a journal which he intitled ' ^Egri
Ephemeris,' noting therein his many sleepless nights by the
words, Nox insomnis. This he often contemplated, and, finding
very little ground for hope that he had much longer to live, he
set himself to prepare for his dissolution, and betook himself to
1 Life, iv. 415. 2 Life, iv. 400.
private
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 123
private prayer and the reading of Erasmus on the New Testa
ment I, Dr. Clarke's sermons 2, and such other books as had
a tendency to calm and comfort him.
In this state of his body and mind, he seemed to be very
anxious in the discharge of two offices that he had hitherto
neglected to perform : one was, the communicating to the world
the names of the persons concerned in the compilation of the
Universal History; the other was, the rescuing from oblivion
the memory of his father and mother, and also, of his brother :
the former of these he discharged, by delivering to Mr. Nichols
the printer, in my presence, a paper containing the information
above-mentioned, and directions to deposit it in the British
Museum 3. The other, by composing a memorial of his deceased
parents and his brother, intended for their tomb-stone, which,
whether it was ever inscribed thereon or not, is extant in the
Gentleman's Magazine for January I7854.
He would also have written, in Latin verse, an epitaph for
Mr. Garrick, but found himself unequal to the task of original
poetic composition in that language.
Nevertheless, he succeeded in an attempt to render into Latin
metre, from the Greek Anthologia, sundry of the epigrams therein
contained, that had been omitted by other translators, alledging
as a reason, which he had found in Fabricius5, that Henry
Stephens, Buchanan, Grotius, and others, had paid a like tribute
to literature. The performance of this task was the employ
ment of his sleepless nights, and, as he informed me, it afforded
him great relief6.
1 * The Paraphrase and Notes of 3 Life, iv. 382 ; Letters, ii. 431.
Erasmus, in my judgment, was the 4 It seems likely that the stone was
most important Book even of his day. never set up. Life, iv. 393, n. 3.
We must remember that it was almost 5 In the Sale Catalogue of Johnson's
legally adopted by the Church of Library, Lot 78 is Fabricii bibliotheca
England.' Milman's Latin Chris ft- Graeca in 6 vols., and Lot 300 the
anity, ed. 1855, vi. 624. same work in 8 vols.
' In the reign of Elizabeth it was 6 On April 19, 1784, he wrote to
commanded that in every church Mrs. Thrale: — ' When I lay sleepless,
there should be a copy of this book I used to drive the night along by
on a desk for the use of the congre- turning Greek epigrams into Latin.'
gation.' Jortin's Erasmus, p. 155. Letters^ ii. 391. See also Life, iv.
2 Life, iv. 416 ; ante, i. 38. 384.
His
124 Extracts from
His complaints still increasing, I continued pressing him to
make a will, but he still procrastinated that business. On the
twenty-seventh of November, in the morning, I went to his
house, with a purpose still farther to urge him not to give occa
sion, by dying intestate, for litigation among his relations ; but
finding that he was gone to pass the day with the Reverend
Mr. Strahan, at Islington, I followed him thither, and found there
our old friend Mr. Ryland, and Mr. Hoole *. Upon my sitting
down, he said, that the prospect of the change he was about to
undergo, and the thought of meeting his Saviour, troubled him,
but that he had hope that he would not reject him. I then
began to discourse with him about his will, and the provision for
Frank, till he grew angry 2. He told me, that he had signed and
sealed the paper I left him ; — but that, said I, had blanks in it,
which, as it seems, you have not filled up with the names of the
executors. * You should have filled them up yourself,' answered
he. 1 replied, that such an act would have looked as if I meant
to prevent his choice of a fitter person. ' Sir,' said he, * these
minor virtues are not to be exercised in matters of such import
ance as this.' At length, he said, that on his return home,
he would send for a clerk, and dictate a will to him.- — —You
will then, said I, be inops consilii ; rather do it now. With
Mr. Strahan's permission, I will be his guest at dinner ; and, if
Mr. Hoole will please to hold the pen, I will, in a few words,
make such a disposition of your estate as you shall direct. To
this he assented ; but such a paroxysm of the asthma seized
him, as prevented our going on. As the fire burned up, he found
himself relieved, and grew chearful. ' The fit/ said he, ' was very
sharp ; but I am now easy.' After I had dictated a few lines,
I told him, that he being a man of eminence for learning and
parts, it would afford an illustrious example, and well become
him, to make such an explicit declaration of his belief, as might
obviate all suspicions that he was any other than a Christian 3.
1 Post in Mr. Hoole's Anecdotes. Johnson (pp. 599, 605) as ' the effects
2 He grew angry, no doubt, with of ill-directed benevolence,' and as
Hawkins for protesting against the ' ostentatious bounty/
annuity for Frank, which that ' brutal 3 ' A few years ago it was the uni-
fellow ' described in his Life of form practice to begin wills with the
He
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 125
He thanked me for the hint, and, calling for paper, wrote on
a slip, that I had in my hand and gave him, the following words :
* I humbly commit to the infinite and eternal goodness of
Almighty God, my soul polluted with many sins ; but, as I hope,
purified by repentance, and redeemed, as I trust, by the death of
Jesus Christ ; ' and, returning it to me, said, ' This I commit to
your custody.'
Upon my calling on him for directions to proceed, he told
me, that his father, in the course of his trade as a bookseller, had
become bankrupt, and that Mr. William Innys had assisted him
with' money or credit to continue his business — ' This,' said
he, ' I consider as an obligation on me to be grateful to his
descendants, and I therefore mean to give 2oo/. to his repre
sentative1.'— He then meditated a devise of his house at Lichfield
to the corporation of that city for a charitable use ; but, it being
freehold, he said — 'I cannot live a twelve-month, and the last
statute of mortmain stands in the way : I must, therefore, think
of some other disposition of it2.' — His next consideration was
a provision for Frank, concerning the amount whereof I found
he had been consulting Dr. Brocklesby, to whom he had put
words, "In the name of God, Amen"; a Christian, as I suppose you to be,
and frequently to insert therein a do write something to make us sure
declaration of the testator's hope of of it." ' Kenyan MSS. Hist. MSS.
pardon in the merits of his Saviour ; Comm., I4th Report, iv. 540.
but, in these more refined times, such T .Life, iv. 402, n. 2, 440.
forms are deemed superfluous.' Roger North, after describing the
HAWKINS. degradation among the booksellers
Mr. Pepys told Hannah More that soon after the Restoration, speaking
this request was made to Johnson of second-hand books continues : —
' to counteract the poison of Hume's ' One that would go higher must take
impious declaration of his opinions his fortune at blank walls and corners
in his last moments.' H. More's of streets, or repair to the sign of
Memoirs, i. 393. See Life, iii. 153, Bateman, Innys and one or two more,
and Letters of Hume to Strahan, where are best choice and best penny-
Preface, p. 38. worths.' Lives of the Norths, ed.
'The late Mr. Allen of Magdalen 1826, iii. 294.
Hall [Life, i. 336], who was a privi- 2 In his last will he directed it to
leged person, and could say what he be sold, the money arising therefrom
pleased to Johnson, addressed him to be distributed among some distant
once very freely upon the subject relations. Life, iv. 402, n. 2. It sold
[of chastising the vanity of scepti- for ^235. Hawkins, p. 599 ; Letters^
cism] : — "Johnson, if you really are i. 19, n. i.
this
126 Extracts from
this question — ' What would be a proper annuity to bequeath to
a favourite servant?' — The doctor answered, that the circum
stances of the master were the truest measure, and that, in the
case of a nobleman, 5o/. a year was deemed an adequate reward
for many years' faithful service. — ' Then shall I,' said Johnson,
* be nobilissimus ; for, I mean to leave Frank 7o/. a year, and
I desire you to tell him so I.' — And now, at the making of the
will, a devise, equivalent to such a provision, was therein in
serted. The residue of his estate and effects, which took in,
though he intended it not, the house at Lichfield, he bequeathed
to his executors, in trust for a religious association, which it is
y 'needless to describe 2.
Having executed the will with the necessary formalities, he
would have come home, but being pressed by Mr. and Mrs.
Strahan to stay, he consented, and we all dined together.
Towards the evening, he grew chearful, and I having promised
to take him in my coach, Mr. Strahan and Mr. Ryland would
accompany him to Bolt-court. In the way thither he appeared
much at ease, and told stories. At eight I sat him down, and
Mr. Strahan and Mr. Ryland betook themselves to their re
spective homes.
Sunday 28th. I saw him about noon ; he was dozing ; but
waking, he found himself in a circle of his friends. Upon open
ing his eyes, he said, that the prospect of his dissolution was
very terrible to him, and addressed himself to us all, in nearly
these words : c You see the state in which I am ; conflicting with
bodily pain and mental distraction : while you are in health and
strength, labour to do good, and avoid evil, if ever you hope to
escape the distress that now oppresses me.' A little while
after, — ' I had, very early in my life, the seeds of goodness in
1 Life, iv. 401. that 'the statute of Mortmain, no
V 2 Boswell says that ' he had thoughts doubt, would have hindered the be-
of leaving to Pembroke College his quest to the College.' This was a
house ; but his friends who were mistake, as the two Universities of
about him very properly dissuaded Oxford and Cambridge, and the Col-
him from it, and he bequeathed it to leges within them, were exempted
some poor relations.' Ib. i. 75. from its operation. Blackstone's
In a note on this passage I say Commentaries, ed. 1775, ii. 274.
me
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 127
me : I had a love of virtue, and a reverence for religion J ; and
these, I trust, have brought forth in me fruits meet for repent
ance ; and, if I have repented as I ought, I am forgiven. I have,
at times, entertained a loathing of sin and of myself, particularly
at the beginning of this year, when I had the prospect of death
before me2; and this has not abated when my fears of death
have been less ; and, at these times, I have had such rays of
hope shot into my soul, as have almost persuaded me, that I am
in a state of reconciliation with God V
29th. Mr. Langton, who had spent the evening with him,
reported, that his hopes were increased, and that he was much
cheared upon being reminded of the general tendency of his
writings, and of his example 4.
3Oth. I saw him in the evening, and found him chearful.
Was informed, that he had, for his dinner, eaten heartily of
a French duck pie and a pheasant.
Dec. i. He was busied in destroying papers5. — Gave to
Mr. Langton and another person, to fair copy, some translations
of the Greek epigrams, which he had made in the preceding
nights, and transcribed the next morning, and they began to
work on them.
3d. Finding his legs continue to swell, he signified to his
physicians a strong desire to have them scarified, but they,
unwilling to put him to pain, and fearing a mortification, de
clined advising it. He afterwards consulted his surgeon, and he
performed the operation on one leg.
4th. I visited him : the scarification, made yesterday in his
leg, appeared to have had little effect. — He said to me, that he
1 Life, i. 68. 4 Mrs. Carter, in one of her latest
2 On Feb. 6 he had written to Dr. conversations with Dr. Johnson,
Heberden: — ' My distemper prevails, spoke of 'his constant attention to
and my hopes sink, and dejection religious duties and the soundness
oppresses me.' Letters, ii. 376. of his moral principles. He took
3 On Oct. 6 he wrote : — ' My mind her by the hand, and said with
is calmer than in the beginning of much eagerness, "You know this
the year, and I comfort myself with to be true ; testify it to the world
hopes of every kind, neither despair- when I am gone.3' ' Memoirs of
ing of ease in this world, nor of Mrs. Carter, i. 41. See also post,
happiness in another.' Letters, ii. p. 203.
423. 5 Life, iv. 403.
was
128 Extracts from
was easier in his mind, and as fit to die at that instant, as he
could be a year hence. — He requested me to receive the sacra
ment with him on Sunday, the next day. Complained of great
weakness, and of phantoms that haunted his imagination.
5th. Being Sunday, I communicated with him and Mr. Lang-
ton, and othei of his friends, as many as nearly filled the room.
Mr. Strahan, who was constant in his attendance on him
throughout his illness, performed the office1. Previous to
reading the exhortation, Johnson knelt, and with a degree of
fervour that I had never been witness to before, uttered the
following most eloquent and energetic prayer 2 : . . .
Upon rising from his knees, after the office was concluded, he
said, that he dreaded to meet God in a state of idiocy, or with
opium in his head 3 ; and, that having now communicated with
the effects of a dose upon him, he doubted if his exertions were
the genuine operations of his mind, and repeated from bishop
Taylor this sentiment, * That little, that has been omitted in
health, can be done to any purpose in sickness V
He very much admired, and often in the course of his illness
recited, from the conclusion of old Isaac Walton's life of bishop
Sanderson, the following pathetic request :
' Thus this pattern of meekness and primitive innocence changed this for
a better life : — 'tis now too late to wish, that mine may be like his ; for I am
in the eighty-fifth year of my age, and God knows it hath not ; but, I most
humbly beseech Almighty God, that my death may ; and I do as earnestly
beg, that, if any reader shall receive any satisfaction from this very plain,
and, as true relation, he will be so charitable as to say, Amen V
While he was dressing and preparing for this solemnity, an
1 Life, iv. 416. 5 'Thus this pattern of meek-
2 For the prayer, see ante, i. 121. ness and primitive innocence chang'd
3 ' I will take no more physic, not this for a better life. 'Tis now too
even my opiates ; for I have prayed late to wish that my life may be
that I may render up my soul to God like his ; for I am in the eighty-
unclouded.' Life, iv. 415. For the fifth year of my Age; but I humbly
effect of opium on him see Letters, beseech Almighty God that my
ii. 437. death may ; and do as earnestly beg
4 Nevertheless in Holy Dying of every Reader to say Amen.' The
Jeremy Taylor has a whole section Life of Bishop Sanderson, first ed.,
(ch. iii. sect. 6) on 'the advantages 1678.
of sickness.'
accident
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 129
accident happened which went very near to disarrange1 his mind.
He had mislaid, and was very anxious to find a paper that con
tained private instructions to his executors ; and myself,
Mr. Strahan, Mr. Langton, Mr. Hoole, Frank, and I believe
some others that were about him, went into his bed-chamber
to seek it. In our search, I laid my hands on a parchment-
covered book, into which I imagined it might have been slipped.
Upon opening the book, I found it to be meditations and / /
reflections, in Johnson's own hand-writing ; and having been
told a day or two before by Frank, that a person formerly
intimately connected with his master, a joint proprietor of
a newspaper, well known among the booksellers, and of whom
Mrs. Williams once told me she had often cautioned him to
beware ; I say, having been told that this person had lately
been very importunate to get access to him, indeed to such
a degree as that, when he was told that the doctor was not to be
seen, he would push his way up stairs ; and having stronger
reasons than I need here mention, to suspect that this man
might find and make an ill use of the book, I put it, and a less
of the same kind, into my pocket ; at the same time telling
those around me, and particularly Mr. Langton and Mr. Strahan,
that I had got both, with my reasons for thus securing them.
After the ceremony was over, Johnson took me aside, and told
me that I had a book of his in my pocket ; I answered that
I had two, and that to prevent their falling into the hands of
a person who had attempted to force his way into the house,
I had done as I conceived a friendly act, but not without telling
his friends of it, and also my reasons. He then asked me what
ground I had for my suspicion of the man I mentioned : I told
him his great importunity to get admittance ; and farther, that
immediately after a visit which he made me, in the year 1775,
I missed a paper of a public nature, and of great importance ;
and that a day or two after, and before it could be put to its
intended use, I saw it in the news-papers 2.
1 For disarrange, see ante, ii. particulars : my reason for it is, that
20. the transaction which so disturbed
2 'As I take no pleasure in the him may possibly be better known
disgrace of others, I regret the neces- than the motives that actuated me
sity I am under of mentioning these at the time.' Note by Hawkins.
VOL. II. K At
130
Extracts from
At the mention of this circumstance Johnson paused ; but re
covering himself, said, ' You should not have laid hands on the
book ; for had I missed it, and not known you had it, I should
have roared for my book, as Othello did for his handkerchief1,
and probably have run mad.'
I gave him time, till the next day, to compose himself, and
then wrote him a letter, apologizing, and assigning at large the
reasons for my conduct ; and received a verbal answer by
Mr. Langton, which, were I to repeat it, would render me
suspected of inexcusable vanity ; it concluded with these words,
* If I was not satisfied with this, I must be a savage2.'
1 Johnson refers to the speech
where Emilia says to Othello : —
' Nay, lay thee down and roar.'
(Act v. Sc. 2.)
But it was not for his handkerchief
that he roared, for he did not as yet
know the trick that had been played
on him.
~ 2 * One of these volumes,' writes
Boswell, ' Sir John Hawkins informs
us, he put into his pocket; for which
the excuse he states is, that he meant
to preserve it from falling into the
hands of a person whom he describes
so as to make it sufficiently clear who
is meant ; " having strong reasons
(said he,) to suspect that this man
might find and make an ill use of
the book." Why Sir John should
suppose that the gentleman alluded
to would act in this manner, he has
not thought fit to explain. But what
he did was not approved of by John
son ; who, upon being acquainted of
it without delay by a friend, ex
pressed great indignation, and
warmly insisted on the book being
delivered up ; and, afterwards, in
the supposition of his missing it,
without knowing by whom it had
been taken, he said, " Sir, I should
have gone out of the world distrust
ing half mankind." Sir John next
day wrote a letter to Johnson, as
signing reasons for his conduct ;
upon which Johnson observed to
Mr. Langton, " Bishop Sanderson
could not have dictated a better
letter. I could almost say, Melius
est sic penituisse quam non errdsse"
The agitation into which Johnson
was thrown by this incident, prob
ably made him hastily burn those
precious records which must ever be
regretted.' Life, iv. 406, n. I. Bishop
Sanderson, I suppose, was selected
on account of ' his casuistical learn
ing ' and of 'the very many cases
that were resolved by letters,' when
he was consulted by people of ' rest
less and wounded consciences.'
Walton's Lives, ed. 1838, p. 378.
According to Miss Hawkins the
' person ' was George Steevens, who
had a share in the St. James's
Chronicle. She says that he stole
from her father's library the copy of
an Address to the Throne from the
Magistrates of Middlesex during the
American war, and published it in
his newspaper. Memoirs of L. M.
Hawkins, i. 265. This certainly
was ' a paper of a public nature,' but
not ' of great importance ' — unless in
the eyes of a Middlesex Magistrate.
Of this incident there is no men
tion in the first edition. ' It is not
so much to our purpose to enquire,
7th.
Hawkins's Life of Johnson.
7th *. I again visited him. Before my departure, Dr. Brock-
lesby came in, and, taking him by the wrist, Johnson gave him
but the curious reader may perhaps
be tempted to ask, why this remark
able circumstantial narrative was
omitted in the first edition, or how
it happens that the regular chrono
logy is now varied to introduce it.'
Gentleman's Magazine, 1787, p. 522.
Porson, in his Panegyrical Epistle
on Hawkins v. Johnson, thus sar
castically comments on this fact :—
* In this age, which is so sharp-
sighted in detecting forgery, I may
perhaps be carried away by the pre
vailing rage; but I cannot help think
ing, that the whole addition in pages
585-6 is spurious, and did not pro
ceed from the pen of Sir John
Hawkins. The Knight's style is
clear and elegant ; this account
cloudy, inconsistent, and embar
rassed. But I shall content myself
with asking a few queries upon this
important paragraph.
' Qu. i. Would a writer, confes
sedly so exact in his choice of words
as the Knight, talk in this manner :
While he was preparing — an acci
dent happened — ? As if one should
say of that unfortunate divine, Dr,
Dodd, an accident proved fatal to
him ; he happened to write another
man's name, etc.
* Qu. ii. Would not Sir John have
told us the name of the person who
is so darkly described in this narra
tion ? He is not usually backward
in mentioning people's names at full
length, where anything is to be said
to their credit.
' Qu. iii. Would he not have told
us something more about the im
portant paper of a public nature,
which he missed after receiving a
visit from Mr. Anonymous ; or would
he not rather have inserted it in the
Life, as it probably would have filled
a page or two ?
' Qu. iv. Where was this parch
ment-covered book, which Sir John
happened to lay his fingers upon ?
Was it lying carelessly about in the
room, or concealed in a deskl In
short, was it in such a place that
a common acquaintance, as I suppose
Mr. Anonymous is represented, could
have easily carried it off?
'Qu. v. How did Johnson learn
(not surely from his eyesight), before
the Knight could convey his prize
away (CONVEY /A* Wise it call), that
his friend was taking such kind care
of his property ? You see, Mr. Urban,
how miserably this story hangs to
gether.
' Qu. vi. If the fact was exactly as
it is here stated, how came Johnson
to be so exceedingly provoked, that,
as we are left to collect from the
sequel, the Knight durst not approach
him till he was appeased by a peni
tential letter ?
' Qu. vii. What is become of this
penitential letter ? and how happens
it to be omitted, if such a letter was
ever written ? Sir John would cer
tainly havey^/#.r with so nourishing
a morsel (Life, p. 46) in a genuine
account of this accident, partly to
swell the volume, and partly to fur
nish the world with a perfect model
of precatory eloquence (Ib. p. 270).
( Qu. viii. WTould not the Knight
also have favoured us with Johnson's
answer in detail, without apologizing
for the omission, by saying, that it
would render him suspected of in
excusable vanity? If the answer
was, as the defenders of the authen-
1 In the first edition, 6th.
K 2
a look
132 Extracts from
a look of great contempt, and ridiculed the judging of his dis
order by the pulse. He complained, that the sarcocele x had
again made its appearance, and asked, if a puncture would not
relieve him, as it had done the year before : the doctor an
swered, that it might, but that his surgeon was the best judge of
the effect of such an operation. Johnson, upon this, said, ' How
many men in a year die through the timidity of those whom
they consult for health ! I want length of life, and you fear
giving me pain, which I care not for 2.'
8th. I visited him with Mr. Langton, and found him dic
tating to Mr. Strahan another will, the former being, as he had
said at the time of making it, a temporary one. On our enter
ing the room, he said, ' God bless you both.' I arrived just
time enough to direct the execution, and also the attestation of
it. After he had published it, he desired Mr. Strahan to say
the Lord's prayer, which he did, all of us joining. Johnson,
after it, uttered, extempore, a few pious ejaculations.
9th. I saw him in the evening, and found him dictating, to
Mr. Strahan, a codicil to the will he had made the evening
before. I assisted them in it, and received from the testator
a direction, to insert a devise to his executors of the house at
Lichfield, to be sold for the benefit of certain of his relations,
a bequest of sundry pecuniary and specific legacies, a provision
for the annuity of 7o/. for Francis, and, after all, a devise of all
the rest, residue, and remainder of his estate and effects, to his
executors, in trust for the said Francis Barber, his executors and
administrators ; and, having dictated accordingly, Johnson exe
cuted and published it as a codicil to his will 3.
ticity of this paragraph, I am told, tents (Life, iv. 406 [ante, ii. 114]).
affirm it was, melius est poenituisse " God put it in thy mind to take it
quam nunquam peccdsse, it must be hence,
owned that it is enough to make That thou might'st win the more
anybody vain. I shall attempt a thy [Johnson's] love,
translation for the benefit of your Pleading so wisely in excuse of it."
mere English readers : There is more 2 Hen. IV.1
joy over a sinner that repenteth than Gent. Mag. 1787, pp. 751-3, and
ever a just person that needeth no For son Tracts, p. 341.
repentance. And we know, from an x Life, iv. 239.
authority not to be disputed, that 2 Ib. iv. 399, n. 6 ; ante, i. 448.
Johnson was a great lover of peni- 3 Leigh Hunt, in a marginal note,
He
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 133
He was now so weak as to be unable to kneel, and lamented,
that he must pray sitting, but, with an effort, he placed himself
on his knees, while Mr. Strahan repeated the Lord's Prayer.
During the whole of the evening, he was much composed and
resigned. Being become very weak and helpless, it was thought
necessary that a man should watch with him all night ; and one
was found in the neighbourhood, who, for half a crown a night,
undertook to sit up with, and assist him. When the man had
left the room, he, in the presence and hearing of Mr. Strahan
and Mr. Langton, asked me, where I meant to bury him. I
answered, doubtless, in Westminster abbey : * If/ said he, ' my
executors think it proper to mark the spot of my interment by
a stone, let it be so placed as to protect my body from injury.'
I assured him it should be done. Before my departure, he
desired Mr. Langton to put into my hands, money to the
amount of upwards of ioo/. with a direction to keep it till called
for1.
loth. This day at noon I saw him again. He said to me,
that the male nurse to whose care I had committed him, was
unfit for the office. ' He is,' said he, e an idiot, as aukward as
a turnspit just put into the wheel, and as sleepy as a dormouse 2.'
Mr. Cruikshank came into the room, and, looking at his scarified
leg, saw no sign of a mortification.
nth. At noon, I found him dozing, and would not disturb him.
1 2th. Saw him again ; found him very weak, and, as he said,
unable to pray.
i3th. At noon, I called at the house, but went not into his
room, being told that he was dozing. I was further informed
says : — * The omission of Boswell's be found that all his bequests of
name in Johnson's will is remark- friendship were to persons (with the
able, and I cannot but think, very possible exception of W. G. Hamil-
damaging.' A Shelf of Old Books, by ton) whom he had seen during the
Mrs. James T. Fields, 1895, p. 174. last days of his life. He had seen
Leigh Hunt should have noticed, Dr. Burney; his omission was prob-
what Boswell points out, that Adams, ably due to the forgetfulness of a
Burney, Hector and Murphy were dying man.
also omitted. Life, iv. 404, n. To x Johnson in his will mentions
these might be added Mrs. Carter, '.£100 now lying by me in ready
Miss Burney, and Hannah More, money.' Life, iv. 402, n. 2.
and his friends at Lichfield. It will 2 Ib. iv. 411.
by
134 Extracts from
by the servants, that his appetite was totally gone, and that he
could take no sustenance. At eight in the evening, of the same
day, word was brought me by Mr. Sastres, to whom, in his
last moments, he uttered these words ( Jam moriturus V that, at
a quarter past seven, he had, without a groan, or the least sign
of pain or uneasiness, yielded his last breath.
At eleven, the same evening, Mr. Langton came to me, and,
in an agony of mind, gave me to understand, that our friend had
wounded himself in several parts of the body 2. I was shocked
at the news ; but, upon being told that he had not touched any
vital part, was easily able to account for an action, which would
else have given us the deepest concern. The fact was, that
conceiving himself to be full of water, he had done that, which
he had often solicited his medical assistants to do, made two or
three incisions in his lower limbs, vainly hoping for some relief
from the flux that might follow.
Early the next morning, Frank came to me; and, being
desirous of knowing all the particulars of this transaction, I in
terrogated him very strictly concerning it, and received from
him answers to the following effect :
That, at eight in the morning of the preceding day, upon
going into the bedchamber, his master, being in bed, ordered
him to open a cabinet, and give him a drawer in it ; that he did
so, and that out of it his master took a case of lancets, and
choosing one of them, would have conveyed it into the bed, which
Frank, a young man 3 that sat up with him, seeing, they seized
his hand, and intreated him not to do a rash action : he said he
would not ; but drawing his hand under the bed-clothes, they
saw his arm move. Upon this they turned down the clothes,
and saw a great effusion of blood, which soon stopped — That
soon after, he got at a pair of scissars that lay in a drawer by him,
and plunged them deep in the calf of each leg — That im
mediately they sent for Mr. Cruikshank, and the apothecary,
and they, or one of them, dressed the wounds — That he then
fell into that dozing which carried him off. — That it was con
jectured he lost eight or ten ounces of blood ; and that this
1 Life, iv. 418 ; ante, ii. 7, and 2 Ib. iv. 418 n.
post p. 159. 3 Mr. Windham's man, Ib. iv. 418.
effusion
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 135
effusion brought on the dozing, though his pulse continued firm
till three o'clock.
That this act was not done to hasten his end, but to dis
charge the water that he conceived to be in him, I have not the
least doubt J. A dropsy was his disease ; he looked upon himself
as a bloated carcase ; and, to attain the power of easy respira
tion, would have undergone any degree of temporary pain. He
dreaded neither punctures nor incisions, and, indeed, defied the
trochar 2 and the lancet ; he had often reproached his physicians
and surgeon with cowardice ; and, when Mr. Cruikshank scarified
his leg, he cried out — ' Deeper, deeper ; — I will abide the con
sequence : you are afraid of your reputation, but that is nothing
to me.'— To those about him, he said, — ' You all pretend to
love me, but you do not love me so well as I myself do.'
I have been thus minute in recording the particulars of his
last moments, because I wished to attract attention to the con
duct of this great man, under the most trying circumstances
human nature is subject to. Many persons have appeared pos
sessed of more serenity of mind in this awful scene : some have
remained unmoved at the dissolution of the vital union ; and, it
may be deemed a discouragement from the severe practice of
religion, that Dr. Johnson, whose whole life was a preparation /
for his death, and a conflict with natural infirmity, was disturbed /
with terror at the prospect of the grave. Let not this relax!/
the circumspection of any one. It is true, that natural
firmness of spirit, or the confidence of hope, may buoy up the
mind to the last ; but, however heroic an undaunted death may
appear, it is not what we should pray for. As Johnson lived
the life of the righteous, his end was that of a Christian : he
strictly fulfilled the injunction of the apostle, to work out his
salvation with fear and trembling 3 ; and, though his doubts and
1 ' This bold experiment,' writes thought it necessary to do. It is
Boswell, ' Sir John Hawkins has re- evident, that what Johnson did in
lated in such a manner as to suggest hopes of relief indicated an extra-
a charge against Johnson of inten- ordinary eagerness to retard his dis-
tionally hastening his end ; a charge solution.' Life, iv. 399, n. 6.
so very inconsistent with his character 2 Johnson defines trocar as 'a
in every respect, that it is injurious chirurgical instrument.'
even to refute it, as Sir John has 3 Philippians ii. 12.
scruples
136 Extracts from
scruples were certainly very distressing to himself, they give
his friends a pious hope, that he, who added to almost all the
virtues of Christianity, that religious humility which its great
Teacher inculcated, will, in the fullness of time, receive the
reward promised to a patient continuance in well-doing.
A few days after his departure, Dr. Brocklesby and Mr. Cruik-
shank, who, with great assiduity and humanity, (and I must
add, generosity, for neither they, nor Dr. Heberden, Dr. Warren,
nor Dr. Butter, would accept any fees1) had attended him,
signified a wish, that his body might be opened. This was
done, and the report made was to this effect :
Two of the valves of the aorta ossified.
The air-cells of the lungs unusually distended.
One of the kidneys destroyed by the pressure of the water.
The liver schirrous.
A stone in the gall-bladder, of the size of a common goose
berry.
On Monday the soth of December, his funeral was celebrated
and honoured by a numerous attendance of his friends, and
among them, by particular invitation, of as many of the literary
club as were then in town, and not prevented by engagements 2.
The dean of Westminster, upon my application, would gladly
have performed the ceremony of his interment, but, at the time,
was much indisposed in his health ; the office, therefore, de
volved upon the senior prebendary, Dr. Taylor, who performed
it with becoming gravity and seriousness. All the prebendaries,
except such as were absent in the country, attended in their
surplices and hoods : they met the corpse at the west door of
1 Johnson, in his Life of Garth, me every attention, but will never
says : — ' I believe every man has take a fee. This is uniformly the
found in physicians great liberality case whatever physician I consult,
and dignity of sentiment, very prompt and I have consulted all that are
effusion of beneficence, and willing- eminent.' H. More's Afe/TZtfzVs, 11.433.
ness to exert a lucrative art, where There is no reason to believe that
there is no hope of lucre.' the physicians of the present age
' I have been so ill,3 wrote Hannah fall short of those whose beneficence
More, 'that my friends have sent Johnson and Hannah More cele-
Dr. Warren to me. He is a most brated.
agreeable, as well as able man ; pays 2 For a list of those who attended
their
Hawkins's Life of Johnson. 137
their church, and performed, in the most respectful manner, all
the honours due to the memory of so great a man z.
His body, enclosed in a leaden coffin, is deposited in the
south transept of the abbey, near the foot qf Shakespeare's
monument, and close to the coffin of his friend Garrick. Agree
able to his request, a stone of black marble2 covers his grave,
thus inscribed :
SAMUEL JOHNSON, L.L.D.
Obiit XIII die Decembris,
Anno Domini
M DCC LXXXIV,
^Etatis suae LXXV. (Page 594.)
The truth of the matter is, that his whole life was a conflict
with his passions and humours, and that few persons bore repre
hension with more patience than himself. After his decease,
I found among his papers an anonymous letter, that seemed to
have been written by a person who had long had his eye on
him, and remarked the offensive particulars in his behaviour,
his propensity to contradiction, his want of deference to the
opinions of others, his contention for victory over those with
whom he disputed, his local prejudices and aversions, and other
his evil habits in conversation/ which made his acquaintance
see post in G. Steevens's Anecdotes, Earl of Upper Ossory.
and Letters, ii. 434. Of the members' Bishop Marlay.
of the Literary Club who did not Earl Spencer,
attend the following is the list in the Bishop Shipley,
order of their seniority : — Lord Eliot.
Bishop Percy. Thomas Warton.
Sir Robert Chambers. Earl of Lucan.
Earl of Charlemont. Sir William Hamilton.
Sir William Jones (absent in India). Viscount Palmerston.
Agmondesham Vesey. Dr. Warren was elected a member
James Boswell. three days after the funeral.
Charles James Fox. * This is Hawkins's reply to the
Dr. George Fordyce. charge of neglect brought against
Edward Gibbon. them and him. Ante, i. 449 n. ;
Adam Smith. Life, iv. 420 n.
Bishop Barnard. 2 Boswell correctly describes it as
Dr. Joseph Warton. « a large blue flag-stone.' Life, iv.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 419.
shunned
138 Extracts from Hawkins's Life of Johnson.
shunned by many, who, as a man of genius and worth, highly
esteemed him. It was written with great temper, in a spirit of
charity, and with a due acknowledgment of those great talents
with which he was endowed, but contained in it several home
truths. In short, it was such a letter as many a one, on the
receipt of it, would have destroyed. On the contrary, Johnson
preserved it, and placed it in his bureau, in a situation so obvious,
that, whenever he opened that repository of his papers, it might
look him in the face ; and I have not the least doubt, that he
frequently perused and reflected on its contents, and endeavoured
to correct his behaviour by an address which he could not but
consider as a friendly admonition. (Page 60 1.)
ANECDOTES BY MISS HAWKINS*
WHEN first I remember Johnson I used to see him sometimes
at a little distance from the house, coming to call on my father ;
his look directed downwards, or rather in such apparent abstrac
tion as to have no direction. His walk was heavy, but he got
on at a great rate, his left arm always fixed across his breast, so
as to bring the hand under his chin ; and he walked wide, as if
to support his weight 2. Getting out of a hackney-coach, which
had set him down in Fleet Street, my brother Henry says he
made his way up Bolt Court in the zig-zag direction of a flash
of lightning ; submitting his course only to the deflections im
posed by the impossibility of going further to right or left.
His clothes hung loose, and the pocket on the right hand
swung violently, the lining of his coat being always visible.
I can now call to mind his brown hand, his metal sleeve-buttons,
and my surprise at seeing him with plain wristbands, when all
gentlemen wore ruffles 3 ; his coat-sleeve being very wide showed
his linen almost to the elbow. His wig in common was cut and
bushy ; if by chance he had one that had been dressed in separate
curls, it gave him a disagreeable look, not suited to his years or
character. I certainly had no idea that this same Dr. Johnson,
1 From the Memoirs of Letitia which Mrs. Thrale said were old-
Hawkins, 2 vols. 8vo. 1827. fashioned,' worn by Sir P. J. Clerk,
2 ' When he walked, it was like see Life, iv. 80. Clerk was a Whig,
the struggling gait of one in fetters.' * Ah, Sir (said Johnson), ancient
Life, iv. 425. See/0.y/, p. 165. ruffles and modern principles do not
3 For * the very rich laced ruffles, agree.'
whom
140 Anecdotes by Miss Hawkins.
whom I thought rather a disgraceful visitor at our house, and
who was never mentioned by ladies but with a smile, was to be
one day an honour not only to us but to his country.
I remember a tailor's bringing his pattern-book to my brothers,
and pointing out a purple, such as no one else wore, as the
doctor's usual choice1. We all shouted with astonishment, at
hearing that Polypheme, as, shame to say, we had nicknamed
him, ever had a new coat ; but the tailor assured us he was
a good customer. (Vol. i. p. 86.)
On the death of Mr. Thrale it was concluded by some that he
would marry the widow ; by others that he would entirely take
up his residence in her house, which, resembling the situation of
many other learned men 2, would have been nothing extraordinary
or censurable. The path he would pursue was not evident, when
on a sudden he came out again, and sought my father with kind
eagerness. Calls were exchanged ; he would now take his tea
with us ; and in one of these evening visits, which were the
pleasantest periods of my knowledge of him, saying, when taking
leave, that he was leaving London, Lady H. said, ' I suppose you
are going to Bath ? ' ' Why should you suppose so ? ' said he.
' Because/ said my mother, ' I hear Mrs. Thrale is gone there V
* / know nothing of Mrs. Thrale,' he roared out ; ' good evening
to you.' The state of affairs was soon made known. (Vol. i.
p. 96.)
It is greatly to the honour of Johnson that he never ac
customed himself ' to descant 4 ' on the ingratitude of mankind,
or to comment on the many causes he had to think harshly of
the world. He said once to my youngest brother, ' I hate a
complainer 5 ; ' this hatred might preserve him from the habit.
(Vol. i. p. 97.)
To Warburton's great powers he did full justice. He did not
1 It was a brown coat that he in Bath. Letters, ii. 404, n. 3.
usually wore. ' He never deviated 4 ' Descant on mine own infirmity.'
from a dark colour.' Life, i. 396 ; Richard III, Act i. sc. I. 1. 27.
iii. 54, n. 2, 325. 5 'Sir, I have never complained of
2 Dr. Watts, for instance. Works, the world ; nor do I think that I
viii. 383. have reason to complain.' Life, iv.
3 She was married to Mr. Piozzi 116. See also ante, i. 263.
always,
Anecdotes by Miss Hawkins. 141
always, my brother says, agree with him in his notions ; ' but/
said he, ' with all his errors, si non errasset, fecerat ille minus!
Speaking of Warburton's contemptuous treatment of some one
who presumed to differ from him, I heard him repeat with such
glee the coarse expressions in which he had vented this feeling,
that there could be no doubt of his hearty approbation x. (Vol. i.
p. 108.)
Mrs. Anna Williams I remember as long as I can remember any
one. ... I see her now, a pale shrunken old lady, dressed in
scarlet 2 made in the handsome French fashion of the time, with
a lace cap, with two stiffened projecting wings on the temples,
and a black lace hood over it ; her grey or powdered hair ap
pearing. Her temper has been recorded as marked with the
Welsh fire, and this might be excited by some of the meaner
inmates of the upper floors ; but her gentle kindness to me
I never shall forget, or think consistent with a bad temper3.
(Vol. i. p. 151.)
What the economy of Dr. Johnson's house might be under his
wife's administration, I cannot tell ; but under Miss Williams's
management, and, indeed, afterwards, when he was even more at
the mercy of those around him, it always exceeded my expecta
tion, as far as the condition of the apartment into which I was
admitted could enable me to judge. It was not, indeed, his
study : amongst his books he probably might bring Magliabecchi 4
to recollection ; but I saw him only in a decent drawing-room of
a house not inferior to others in the same local situation, and
with stout old-fashioned mahogany chairs and tables 5. I have
said that he was a liberal customer to his tailor, and I can
remember that his linen was often a strong contrast to the colour
of his hands 6. (Vol. i. p. 208.)
I C
JOHNSON. "When I read War- 2 For Hannah More ' all gorgeous
burton first, and observed his force in scarlet ' see Life, iv. 325, n. 2.
and his contempt of mankind, I 3 For Miss Williams's temper see
thought he had driven the world be- ib. iii. 26, 220.
fore him ; but I soon found that was 4 Ante, ii. 87.
not the case ; for Warburton, by ex- 5 Ante, ii. 135.
tending his abuse, rendered it in- 6 Nevertheless Johnson owned that
effectual." ' Life, v. 93. See also he ' had no passion for clean linen.'
ante, i. 381 n. ; ii. 15 n. Ib. i. 397.
In
142 Anecdotes by Miss Hawkins.
In his colloquial intercourse, Johnson's compliments were
studied, and therefore lost their effect : his head dipped lower ;
the semicircle in which it revolved was of greater extent ; and
his roar was deeper in its tone when he meant to be civil. His
movement in reading, which he did with great rapidity, was
humorously described after his death, by a lady, who said, that
* his head swung seconds V
The usual initial sentences of his conversation led some to
imagine that to resemble him was as easy as to mimic him, and
that, if they began with ' Why, Sir/ or ' I know no reason/ or
f If any man chooses to think/ or ' If you mean to say/ they
must, of course, * talk Johnson 2.' That his style might be imi
tated, is true ; and that its strong features made it easier to lay
hold on it than on a milder style, no one will dispute. (Vol. i.
P.
For the following trifling circumstances connected with Dr.
Johnson I am indebted to my younger brother. ' Speaking of
reading and study, I heard him say, that he would not ask a man
to give up his important interests for them, because it would not
be fair ; but that, if any man would employ in reading that time
which he would otherwise waste, he would answer for it, if he
were a man of ordinary endowment, that he would make a
sensible man. " He might not," said he, " make a Bentley, but
he would be a sensible man 3." 3
1 ' He commonly held his head to * Imitation is of two sorts ; the
one side towards his right shoulder, first is when we force to our own
and shook it in a tremulous manner.' purposes the thoughts of others ; the
Life, i. 485. second consists in copying the im-
2 For imitations of him see ib. ii. perfections or blemishes of celebrated
326, n. 5, and for his ' No, Sir,' ib. iv. authors. I have seen a play pro-
315. fessedly writ in the style of Shake-
* We see the eyes and mouth speare, wherein the resemblance lay
moving with convulsive twitches ; we in one single line,
see the heavy form rolling ; we hear ' And so good morrow t' ye, good
it puffing ; and then comes the master lieutenant.'
"Why, sir ! " and the "What then, Swift's Works, ed. 1803, xxiii. 53.
sir ? " and the " No, sir ! " and the According to Lamb the writer of
"You don't see your way through this play was Rowe. Letters of
the question, sir ! " ' Macaulay's Charles Lamb, ed. 1888, i. 138.
Essays, ed. 1843, i. 407. 3 ' Snatches of reading (said John-
'He
Anecdotes by Miss Hawkins.
1 He was adverse to departing from the common opinions and
customs of the world, as conceiving them to have been founded
on experience V
' He doubted whether there ever was a man who was not
gratified by being told that he was liked by the women/
* He was speaking of surgical operations. I suggested that
they were now performed with less pain than formerly, owing to
modern improvements in science. " Yes, Sir," said he, " but if
you will conceive a wedge placed with the broad end downwards,"
alluding to the drawing of a tooth, " no human power, nor angel,
as / conceive, can extract that wedge without giving pain 2."
* He spoke contemptuously of the habit of corresponding by
letter, and of professing to pour out miJs soul upon paper3.
Calling upon him shortly after the death of Lord Mansfield, and
mentioning the event, he said, " Ah, Sir ! there was little learning
and less virtue4."' (Vol. i. p. 216.)
son) will not make a Bentley or
a Clarke. They are, however, in a
certain degree advantageous.' Life,
iv. 21.
1 See ante, i. 221.
2 When Johnson was suffering
from a sarcocele (Life, iv. 239) he
was attended by Percival Pott, one
of the first surgeons of the day.
When in 1749 Pott was appointed
surgeon of St. Bartholomew's Hos
pital ' the maxim Dolor medicina
doloris still remained unrefuted. Mr.
Pott's tutor treated with supercilious
contempt the endeavours of his pupil
to recommend a milder system. Mr.
Pott lived to see those remains of
barbarism set aside.' J. Earle's Life
of Pott. ' Pott directed those who
tried to bring back Dodd to life after
his execution.' W7heatley's Wraxall's
Memoirs, iv. 249.
3 ' It has been so long said as to
be commonly believed, that the true
characters of men may be found in
their letters, and that he who writes
to his friend lays his heart open
before him. But the truth is that
such were the simple friendships of
the Golden Age, and are now the
friendships only of children.' Works,
viii. 314. See Letters, ii. 52, and
Life, iv. 102.
4 Lord Mansfield died on March
20) !793> outliving Johnson by more
than eight years. In spite of this
gross blunder it is quite possible that
Johnson thus spoke of him. Boswell
says that 'Johnson entertained no
exalted opinion of his Lordship's
intellectual character. Talking of
him to me one day he said : — " It
is wonderful, Sir, with how little
real superiority of mind men can
make an eminent figure in publick
life."' Life, \v. 178. Smollett's praise
of Mansfield perhaps implies that he
had no great learning; for he says
that he had ' an innate sagacity that
saved the trouble of intense applica-
My
144 Anecdotes by Miss Hawkins.
My father and Boswell grew a little acquainted ; and when the
Life of their friend came out, Boswell showed himself very uneasy
under an injury, which he was much embarrassed in defining.
He called on my father, and being admitted, complained of the
manner in which he was enrolled amongst Johnson's friends, which
was as Mr. James Boswell of Auchinleck1. Where was the
offence ? It was one of those which a complainant hardly dares
to embody in words : he would only repeat, * Well, but Mr. James
Boswell ! surely, surely, Mr. James Boswell //'.... ' I know,'
said my father, ' Mr. Boswell, what you mean ; you would have
had me say that Johnson undertook this tour with THE BOSWELL.'
He could not indeed absolutely covet this mode of proclamation ;
he would perhaps have been content with 'the celebrated/ or
* the well-known,' but he could not confess quite so much ; he
therefore acquiesced in the amendment proposed, but he was
forced to depart without any promise of correction in a sub
sequent edition. (Vol. i. p. 235.)
tion.' History of England, ed. 1800, 'Mr. John Hawkins, an attorney.'
iii. 239. See Hume's Letters to Life, \. 190. See ante, ii. 36, in Bos-
Strahan, p. 125, n. 13. well's letter to Malone of March 8,
1 Hawkins described him as 'Mr. 1791, where he tells how he has got
James Boswell, a native of Scotland.' the printer of the Oracle to promise
Hawkins, p. 472. Boswell in return, to mention that some lines by Mr.
in enumerating the members of the Boswell are not by James Boswell^
Ivy Lane Club, described him as Esq. See also Life, ii. 382, n. i.
NARRATIVE BY JOHN HOOLE
[Published in the European Magazine for September, 1779,
P- J53-
For John Hoole, see Lifey ii. 289 ; iv. 70.
Lamb wrote in 1797 : * Fairfax I have been in quest of a long
time. Johnson in his Life of Waller gives a most delicious
specimen of him, and adds, in the true manner of that delicate
critic, as well as amiable man, " It may be presumed that this
old version will not be much read after the elegant translation
of my friend, Mr. Hoole." I endeavoured — I wished to gain
some idea of Tasso from this Mr. Hoole, the great boast and
ornament of the India House, but soon desisted. I found him
more vapid than small beer '* sun-vinegared." '
What Johnson wrote was : * Fairfax's work, after Mr. Hoole's
translation, will perhaps not be soon reprinted/ Works, vii.
216.
Lady Louisa Stuart writing to Sir Walter Scott on Feb. 10,
1817, thus describes Hoole : — ' He once fell in my way near thirty
years ago. He was a clerk in the India House, a man of business
of that ancient breed, now extinct, which used to be as much
marked by plaited cambric ruffles, a neat wig, a snuff-coloured
suit of clothes, and a corresponding sobriety of look, as one race
of spaniels is by the black nose and silky hair. " When I have
been long otherwise employed, and out of the habit of writing
verse," said he, " I find it rather difficult and get on slowly ; but
VOL. II. L after
146 Narrative by John Hoole.
after a little practice I fall into the track again ; then I can easily
make a hundred lines in a day." : Familiar Letters of Sir
Walter Scott^ 1894, i. 409.]
SATURDAY, Nov. 20, 1784. — This evening, about eight o'clock,
I paid a visit to my dear friend Dr. Johnson, whom I found very
ill and in great dejection of spirits. We had a most affecting
conversation on the subject of religion, in which he exhorted
me, with the greatest warmth of kindness, to attend closely to
every religious duty, and particularly enforced the obligation of
private prayer and receiving the Sacrament. He desired me to
stay that night and join in prayer with him ; adding, that he
always went to prayer every night with his man Francis. He
conjured me to read and meditate upon the Bible, and not to
throw it aside for a play or a novel. He said he had himself
lived in great negligence of religion and worship for forty years ;
that he had neglected to read his Bible, and had often reflected
what he could hereafter say when he should be asked why he
had not read it x. He begged me repeatedly to let his present
situation have due effect upon me ; and advised me, when I got
home, to note down in writing what had passed between us,
adding, that what a man writes in that manner dwells upon
his mind. He said many things that I cannot now recollect,
but all delivered with the utmost fervour of religious zeal and
personal affection. Between nine and ten o'clock his servant
Francis came upstairs : he then said we would all go to
prayers, and, desiring me to kneel down by his bedside, he
repeated several prayers with great devotion. I then took my
leave. He then pressed me to think of all he had said, and to
commit it to writing. I assured him I would. He seized my
hand with much warmth, and repeated, ' Promise me you will
do it : ' on which we parted, and I engaged to see him the
next day.
1 In 1772 he recorded, after read- know, even thus hastily, confusedly,
ing the Bible through : — ' It is a and imperfectly, what my Bible con-
comfort to me that at last, in my tains.' Ante^ i. 61.
sixty-third year, I have attained to
Sunday
Narrative by John Hook. 147
Sunday, Nov. 21. — About noon I again visited him ; found
him rather better and easier, his spirits more raised, and his
conversation more disposed to general subjects. When I came
in, he asked if I had done what he desired (meaning the noting
down what passed the night before) ; and upon my saying
that I had, he pressed my hand and said earnestly, 'Thank
you.' Our discourse then grew more cheerful. He told me,
with apparent pleasure, that he heard the Empress of Russia
had ordered The Rambler to be translated into the Russian lan
guage, and that a copy would be sent him x.
Before we parted, he put into my hands a little book, by
Fleetwood, on the Sacrament2, which he told me he had been
the means of introducing to the University of Oxford by
recommending it to a young student there.
Monday, Nov. 22. — Visited the Doctor : found him seemingly
better of his complaints, but extremely low and dejected. I sat
by him till he fell asleep, and soon after left him, as he seemed
little disposed to talk; and, on my going away, he said, em
phatically, ' I am very poorly indeed ! '
Tuesday, Nov. 23. — Called about eleven : the Doctor not up :
Mrs. Gardiner 3 in the dining-room : the Doctor soon came to
us, and seemed more cheerful than the day before. He spoke of
his design to invite a Mrs. Hall 4 to be with him, and to offer her
1 He had beeil misinformed. Life, Customs and Ancient Laws of 'Russia,
iv. 277. An anonymous correspondent p. 222.
from St. Petersburg informs me that 2 The Reasonable Communicant,
'a very complete condensation of by W. Fleetwood, D.D., late Lord
Boswell's Johnson was published in Bishop of Ely, 1704. Fleetwood was
Russian by a distinguished critic, born in 1656 and died in 1723. The
Drujinine, in 1851 and 1852. It has following passage in this work is
been republished in his complete opposed to the common opinion of
works, 1865, and is included in the the heavy breakfasts of our fore-
first 245 close - printed pages of fathers : — ' I do not suppose that any
vol. iv.' one makes a full meal in the morn-
The Wealth of Nations was trans- ing, that is not going to strong
lated into Russian nineteen years Labour, much less upon Sunday?
after Johnson's death, and at once l6th ed. 1748, p. 77.
raised the question of * the relative 3 Ante, i. 80.
advantages of free and servile labour 4 John Wesley's sister. Life, iv.
in agriculture.' Kovalevsky's Modern 92.
L 2 Mrs.
148 Narrative by John Hook.
Mrs. Williams's room. Called again about three : found him
quite oppressed with company that morning, therefore left him
directly.
Wednesday, Nov. 24. — Called about seven in the evening :
found him very ill and very low indeed. He said a thought
had struck him that his rapid decline of health and strength
might be partly owing to the town air, and spoke of getting
a lodging at Islington, I sat with him till past nine, and then
took my leave.
Thursday, Nov. 25. — About three in the afternoon was told
that he desired that day to see no company. In the evening,
about eight, called with Mr. Nicol x, and, to our great surprise,
we found him then setting out for Islington, to the Rev. Mr.
Strahan's2. He could scarce speak. We went with him down
the court to the coach. He was accompanied by his servant
Frank and Mr. Lowe the painter 3. I offered myself to go with
him but he declined it.
Friday, Nov. 26. — Called at his house about eleven : heard he
was much better, and had a better night than he had known
a great while, and was expected home that day. Called again
in the afternoon — not so well as he was, nor expected home that
night.
Saturday, Nov. 27. — Called again about noon: heard he was
much worse : went immediately to Islington, where I found him
extremely bad, and scarce able to speak, with the asthma. Sir
John Hawkins, the Rev. Mr. Strahan, and Mrs. Strahan, were
with him. Observing that we said little, he desired that we
would not constrain ourselves, though he was not able to talk
with us. Soon after he said he had something to say to Sir
John Hawkins, on which we immediately went down into the
1 Mr. George Nicol, of Pall Mall. withdrew from the trammels of busi-
HOOLE. The King's bookseller. Life, ness to a house in his native village
iv. 251 ; Letters •, ii. 438. [Islington].' Lit. Hist. viii. Preface,
2 Rev. George Strahan, Vicar of p. 5. Nineteen years earlier Isling-
Islington. Life, iv. 271,416; Letters, ton, when Johnson visited it for
ii. 88. change of air, was still less a part of
John Nichols, writing of himself, London,
says :— ' In the summer of 1803 he 3 Life, iii. 324 ; iv. 202.
parlour.
Narrative by John Hoole. 149
parlour. Sir John soon followed us, and said he had been
speaking about his will1. Sir John started the idea of pro
posing to him to make it on the spot ; that Sir John should
dictate it, and that I should write it. He went up to propose it,
and soon came down with the Doctor's acceptance. The will
was then begun ; but before we proceeded far, it being necessary,
on account of some alteration, to begin again, Sir John asked
the Doctor whether he would choose to make any introductory
declaration respecting his faith. The Doctor said he would.
Sir John further asked if he would make any declaration of his
being of the church of England : to which the Doctor said
' No ! ' but, taking a pen, he wrote on a paper the following
words, which he delivered to Sir John, desiring him to keep
it : — ' I commit to the infinite mercies of Almighty God my
soul, polluted 2 with many sins ; but purified, I trust, with re
pentance and the death of Jesus Christ.' While he was at
Mr. Strahan's, Dr. Brocklesby came in, and Dr. Johnson put
the question to him, whether he thought he could live six
weeks ? to which Dr. Brocklesby returned a very doubtful
answer3, and soon left us. After dinner the will was finished,
and about six we came to town in Sir John Hawkins's carriage ;
Sir John, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Ryland 4 (who came in after dinner),
and myself. The Doctor appeared much better in the way
home, and talked pretty cheerfully 5. Sir John took leave of us
at the end of Bolt Court, and Mr. Ryland and myself went to
his house with the Doctor, who began to grow very ill again.
Mr. Ryland soon left us, and I remained with the Doctor till
Mr. Sastres 6 came in. We stayed with him about an hour,
when we left him on his saying he had some business to do.
Mr. Sastres and myself went together homewards, discoursing
1 Ante, ii. 124. ' Pope polluted his will with female
2 Life, iv. 404, 440. To the in- resentment.' Ib. viii. 307.
stances given there of the use of 3 Ante, ii. 122; Life, iv. 415.
polluted I would add the following 4 Letters, i. 56.
by Johnson. — '"Pollute his canvas 5 ' In the way thither he appeared
with deformity.' Ib. i. 330. ' Dryden much at ease, and told stories.'
seldom pollutes his page with an Ante, ii. 126.
adverse name.' Works, vii. 294. 6 Ante, i. 292.
on
150 Narrative by John Hoole.
on the dangerous state of our friend, when it was resolved that
Mr. Sastres should write to Heberden * ; but going to his house
that night, he fortunately found him at home, and he promised
to be with Dr. Johnson next morning.
Sunday, Nov. 28. — Went to Dr. Johnson's about two o'clock :
met Mrs. Hoole coming from thence, as he was asleep : took
her back with me : found Sir John Hawkins with him. The
Doctor's conversation tolerably cheerful. Sir John reminded
him that he had expressed a desire to leave some small memo
rials to his friends, particularly a Polyglot Bible to Mr. Lang-
ton 2 ; and asked if they should add the codicil then. The
Doctor replied, * he had forty things to add, but could not do
it at that time.' Sir John then took his leave. Mr. Sastres
came next into the dining-room, where I was with Mrs. Hoole.
Dr. Johnson hearing that Mrs. Hoole was in the next room,
desired to see her. He received her with great affection, took
her by the hand, and said nearly these words : — ' I feel great
tenderness for you : think of the situation in which you see me,
profit by it, and God Almighty keep you for Jesus Christ's
sake, Amen.' He then asked if we would both stay and dine
with him. Mrs. Hoole said she could not ; but I agreed to stay.
Upon my saying to the Doctor that Dr. Heberden would be
with him that morning, his answer was, ' God has called me, and
Dr. Heberden comes too late.' Soon after this Dr. Heberden
came. While he was there, we heard them, from the other
room, in earnest discourse, and found that they were talking
over the affair 3 of the K — g and C n 4. We overheard
Dr. Heberden say, * All you did was extremely proper.' After
1 Letters, ii. 95, n. ; Life, iv. 228. Fellow of the College of Physicians.
' Dr. Heberden (as every physician, A. C. Buller's Life of Heberden, 1879,
to make himself talked of, will set up p. 17- For his house built on the
some new hypothesis) pretends that site of Nell Gwynne's, see Letters, ii.
a damp house, and even damp sheets, 3O2> n- *•
which have ever been reckoned fatal, 2 This was bequeathed. Life, iv.
are wholesome ; to prove his faith 402, n. 2.
he went into his own new house 3 'This alludes to an application
totally unaired, and survived it.' made for an increase to his pension,
Walpole's Letters, vi. 220. He sur- to enable him to go to Italy.' J.
vived it twenty-six years and died at HOOLE. Life, iv. 326.
the age of ninety-one — the Senior 4 ' Sic ; but probably an error of
Dr.
Narrative by John Hoole. 151
Dr. Heberden was gone, Mr. Sastres and I returned into the
chamber. Dr. Johnson complained that sleep this day had
powerful dominion over him, that he waked with great difficulty,
and that probably he should go off in one of these paroxysms.
Afterwards he said that he hoped his sleep was the effect of
opium taken some days before, which might not be worked off.
We dined together — the Doctor, Mr. Sastres, Mrs. Davies z, and
myself. He ate a pretty good dinner with seeming appetite,
but appearing rather impatient ; and being asked unnecessary
and frivolous questions, he said he often thought of Macbeth —
' Question enrages him 2.J He retired immediately after dinner,
and we soon went, at his desire (Mr. Sastres and myself), and sat
with him till tea. He said little, but dozed at times. At six he
ordered tea for us, and we went out to drink it with Mrs. Davies ;
but the Doctor drank none. The Rev. Dr. Taylor, of Ash-
bourne, came soon after ; and Dr. Johnson desired our attend
ance at prayers, which were read by Dr. Taylor3. Mr. Ryland
came and sat some time with him : he thought him much better.
Mr. Sastres and I continued with him the remainder of the
evening, when he exhorted Mr. Sastres in nearly these words :
* There is no one who has shown me more attention than you
have done, and it is now right you should claim some attention
from me. You are a young man, and are to struggle through
life : you are in a profession that I dare say you will exercise
with great fidelity and innocence ; but let me exhort you always
to think of my situation, which must one day be yours : always
remember that life is short, and that eternity never ends ! I say
nothing of your religion ; for if you conscientiously keep to it,
I have little doubt but you may be saved : if you read the con
troversy, I think we have the right on our side ; but if you do
the press for C r, meaning the For his dislike of questioning, see
King and Lord Chancellor.' Croker ; Life, ii. 472 ; iii. 268.
Life, iv. 336, 348. 3 This shows that Johnson's quarrel
1 Most probably ' Mrs. Davis that with Dr. Taylor was made up.
was about Mrs. Williams.' Letters, Ante, i. 96 n ; Letters, ii. 426, n. 3.
ii. 332. Perhaps however the wife He did not however bequeath any
of Tom Davies the bookseller. Life^ memorial to him as he did to most
i. 484. of those whom he saw in his last
2 Macbeth, Act iii. sc. 4. 1. 118. days.
not
152 Narrative by John Hoole.
not read it, be not persuaded, from any worldly consideration, to
alter the religion in which you were educated : change not, but
from conviction of reason V He then most strongly enforced
the motives of virtue and piety from the consideration of a future
state of reward and punishment, and concluded with ' Remember
all this, and God bless you ! Write down what I have said —
I think you are the third person I have bid do this 2.' At ten
o'clock he dismissed us, thanking us for a visit which he said
could not have been very pleasant to us.
Monday, Nov. 29. — Called with my son 3 about eleven : saw
the Doctor, who said, ' You must not now stay ; ' but, as we
were going away, he said, * I will get Mr. Hoole to come
next Wednesday and read the Litany to me, and do you and
Mrs. Hoole come with him.' He appeared very ill. Returning
from the city I called again to inquire, and heard that Dr. Butter 4
was with him. In the evening, about eight, called again and just
saw him ; but did not stay, as Mr. Langton was with him on
business. I met Sir Joshua Reynolds going away 5.
Tuesday, Nov. 30. — Called twice this morning, but did not
see him : he was much the same. In the evening, between six
and seven, went to his house : found there Mr. Langton, Mr.
Sastres, and Mr. Ryland : the Doctor being asleep in the
chamber, we went all to tea and coffee ; when the Doctor came
in to us rather cheerful, and entering said, ' Dear gentlemen, how
do you do ? ' He drank coffee, and, in the course of the con
versation, said that he recollected a poem of his, made some
years ago on a young gentleman coming of age. He repeated
the whole with great spirit : it consisted of about fifteen or
sixteen stanzas of four lines, in alternate rhyme. He said he
had only repeated it once since he composed it, and that he
never gave but one copy 6. He said several excellent things that
evening, and among the rest, that * scruples made many men
1 For conversions ' from Protes- 3 The Rev. Samuel Hoole. Life,
tantism to Popery,' see Life, ii. iv. 409.
105. 4 Ib. iii. 154. 5 Ib. iv. 413.
2 'The other two were Dr. Brockles- 6 It was to Mrs. Thrale that he
by and myself.' J. HOOLE. Life, gave the copy. Ante, i. 281 ; Letters,
iv. 414. ii. 190; Life, iv. 411.
miserable
Narrative by John Hoole. 153
miserable, but few men good J.' He spoke of the affectation
that men had to accuse themselves of petty faults or weaknesses,
in order to exalt themselves into notice for any extraordinary
talents which they might possess ; and instanced Waller, which
he said he would record if he lived to revise his life. Waller
was accustomed to say that his memory was so bad he would
sometimes forget to repeat his grace at table, or the Lord's
Prayer 2, perhaps that people might wonder at what he did else
of great moment ; for the Doctor observed, that no man takes
upon himself small blemishes without supposing that great
abilities are attributed to him ; and that, in short, this affectation
of candour or modesty was but another kind of indirect self-
praise, and had its foundation in vanity 3. Frank bringing him
a note, as he opened it he said an odd thought struck him, that
'one should receive no letters in the grave4.5 His talk was in
general very serious and devout, though occasionally cheerful :
he said, ' You are all serious men, and I will tell you something.
About two years since I feared that I had neglected God, and
that then I had not a mind to give him : on which I set about
to read Thomas a Kempis 5 in Low Dutch, which I accomplished,
1 Ante, i. 38. 5 ' He was,' says Hawkins (p. 544),
2 'Tout le monde se plaint de sa 'for some time pleased with Kempis's
me'moire, et personne ne se plaint de tract De Imitatione Christi, but at
son jugement.' La Rochefoucauld, length laid it aside, saying, that the
Maximes, No. 89. main design of it was to promote
3 'All censure of a man's self is monastic piety, and inculcate eccle-
oblique praise. It is in order to siastical obedience.'
show how much he can spare. It Milman in his History of Latin
has all the invidiousness of self- Christianity, vi. 559, speaks of * the
praise, and all the reproach of false- sublime selfishness of the Imitation
hood.' Life, iii. 323. of Christ' See also ib. p. 484.
' Nous n'avouons de petits deTauts Thackeray wrote of it on Christmas
que pour persuader que nous n'en Day, 1849 :— * The scheme of that
avons pas de grands.' La Roche- book carried out would make the
foucauld, Maximes, No. 334. world the most wretched, useless,
' This note was from Mr. Davies dreary, doting place of sojourn—
the bookseller, and mentioned a there would be no manhood, no love,
present of some pork ; upon which no tender ties of mother and child,
the Doctor said, in a manner that no use of intellect, no trade or
seemed as if he thought it ill-timed, science, a set of selfish beings crawl-
" Too much of this," or some such ing about avoiding one another
expression.' J. HOOLE. Life, iv. 413. and howling a perpetual miserere*
and
154 Narrative by John Hoole.
and thence I judged that my mind was not impaired, Low Dutch
having no affinity with any of the languages which I knew x.
With respect to his recovery, he seemed to think it hopeless.
There was to be a consultation of physicians next day : he
wished to have his legs scarified to let out the water ; but this
his medical friends opposed, and he submitted to their opinion,
though he said he was not satisfied2. At half-past eight
he dismissed us all but Mr. Langton. I first asked him if
my son should attend him next day, to read the Litany,
as he had desired ; but he declined it on account of the
expected consultation. We went away, leaving Mr. Langton and
Mr. De Moulins 3, a young man who was employed in copying
his Latin epigrams 4.
Wednesday, Dec. i. — At his house in the evening : drank tea
and coffee with Mr. Sastres, Mr. De Moulins, and Mr. Hall 5 :
went into the Doctor's chamber after tea, when he gave me
an epitaph to copy, written by him for his father, mother, and
brother 6. He continued much the same.
Thursday, Dec. 2. — Called in the morning, and left the epitaph :
with him in the evening about seven ; found Mr. Langton and
Mr. De Moulins ; did not see the Doctor ; he was in his chamber,
and afterwards engaged with Dr. Scott7.
Friday, Dec. 3. — Called ; but he wished not to see anybody.
Letters of W.M.Thackeray. London, when he had expressed fears about
1887, p. 96. the scarification. Post in Windham's
1 It is strange that he should not Diary. Heberden, forty-two years
see its close affinity with English. earlier, had attended Bentley at his
' Mr. Burke justly observed that this death, and had refused to bleed him,
was not the most vigorous trial, Low though the aged patient pressed him.
Dutch being a language so near to Monk's Bentley, ii. 413.
our own.' Life, iv. 21. ' JOHNSON. 3 Four years earlier he wrote to
"English and High Dutch have no Mrs. Thrale : — 'Young Desmoulins
similarity to the eye, though radically is taken in an under something of
the same. Once, when looking into Drury-lane.' Letters, ii. 73.
Low Dutch, I found in a whole page 4 Ante, \. 445.
only one word similar to English ; 5 Perhaps a mistake for Mrs. Hall,
stroem like stream, and it signified Wesley's sister.
tide" ' Ib. iii. 235. See also ib. ii. 6 He sent it to Lichfield the next
263, and ante, i. 68. day. Life, iv. 393.
2 He had reproached Heberden 7 Afterwards Lord Stowell, one of
with being timidorum timidissimus, his executors. Ib. iv. 402, n. 2.
Consultations
Narrative by John Hoole. 155
Consultations of physicians to be held that day : called again in
the evening ; found Mr. Langton with him ; Mr. Sastres and
I went together into his chamber ; he was extremely low. ' I am
very bad indeed, dear gentlemen,' he said ; ' very bad, very low,
very cold, and I think I find my life to fail.' In about a quarter
of an hour he dismissed Mr. Sastres and me ; but called me
back again, and said that next Sunday, if he lived, he designed
to take the sacrament, and wished me, my wife, and son to be
there. We left Mr. Langton with him.
Saturday, Dec. 4. — Called on him about three : he was much
the same ; did not see him, he had much company that day.
Called in the evening with Mr. Sastres about eight ; found he
was not disposed for company ; Mr. Langton with him ; did not
see him.
Sunday, Dec. 5.— Went to Bolt Court with Mrs. Hoole after
eleven ; found there Sir John Hawkins, Rev. Mr. Strahan,
Mrs. Gardiner, and Mr. De Moulins, in the dining-room. After
some time the Doctor came to us from the chamber, and saluted
us all, thanking us all for this visit to him. He said he found
himself very bad, but hoped he should go well through the duty
which he was about to do. The sacrament was then administered
to all present, Frank being of the number1. The Doctor re
peatedly desired Mr. Strahan to speak louder; seeming very
anxious not to lose any part of the service, in which he joined in
very great fervour of devotion. The service over, he again
thanked us all for attending him on the occasion ; he said he
had taken some opium to enable him to support the fatigue : he
seemed quite spent, and lay in his chair some time in a kind of
doze : he then got up and retired into his chamber. Mr. Ryland
then called on him. I was with them : he said to Mr. Ryland,
' I have taken my viaticum : I hope I shall arrive safe at the
end of my journey, and be accepted at last.' He spoke very
1 For the prayer which Johnson a protest against 'ostentatious bounty
composed see ante^ i. 121. and favour to negroes] must, brutal
Hawkins, who said that Frank's fellow that he was, with great in-
' first master had in great humanity dignation have seen the black ser-
made him a Christian,' and whose vant admitted. See also ante, ii.
last words in his Life of Johnson are 124 n. ; Life, iv. 441.
despondingly
156 Narrative by John Hoole.
despondingly several times : Mr. Ryland comforted him, observing
that ' we had great hopes given us.' £ Yes/ he replied, ' we have
hopes given us ; but they are conditional, and I know not how
far I have fulfilled those conditions I.' He afterwards said
c However, I think that I have now corrected all bad and vicious
habits.' Sir Joshua Reynolds called on him : we left them to
gether. Sir Joshua being gone, he called Mr. Ryland and me
again to him : he continued talking very seriously, and repeated
a prayer or collect with great fervour, when Mr. Ryland took
his leave. My son came to us from his church : we were at
dinner — Dr. Johnson, Mrs. Gardiner, myself, Mrs. Hoole, my son?
and Mr. De Moulins. He ate a tolerable dinner, but retired directly
after dinner. He had looked out a sermon of Dr. Clarke's2,
' On the Shortness of Life,' for me to read to him after dinner,
but he was too ill to hear it. After six o'clock he called us
all into his room, when he dismissed us for that night with
a prayer, delivered as he sat in his great chair in the most
fervent and affecting manner, his mind appearing wholly em
ployed with the thoughts of another life. He told Mr. Ryland
that he wished not to come to God with opium 3, but that he
hoped he had been properly attentive. He said before us all,
that when he recovered the last spring, he had only called it
a reprieve, but that he did think it was for a longer time ; how
ever he hoped the time that had been prolonged to him might
be the means of bringing forth fruit meet for repentance.
Monday, Dec. 6. — Sent in the morning to make inquiry after
him ; he was much the same ; called in the evening ; found
Mr. Cruikshanks 4 the surgeon with him ; he said he had been
that day quarrelling with all his physicians ; he appeared in
tolerable spirits.
Tuesday, Dec. 7. — Called at dinner time ; saw him eat a very
good dinner : he seemed rather better, and in spirits.
1 Life, iv. 299 ; Letters^ ii. 380. Dictionary/ but on his death-bed
' Quid sum miser tune dicturus, ' he pressed Dr. Brocklesby to read
Quern patronum rogaturus, his sermons.' Life, iv. 416 ; ante,
Quum vix Justus sit securus ? ' i. 38.
Dies Irae. 3 Ante> ii. 128.
2 Johnson ' had made it a rule not 4 W. C. Cruikshank. Life, iv.
to admit Dr. Clarke's name in his 239.
Wednesday
Narrative by John Hoole. 157
Wednesday, Dec. 8. — Went with Mrs. Hoole and my son, by
appointment : found him very poorly and low, after a very bad
night. Mr. Nichols the printer was there1. My son read the
Litany, the Doctor several times urging him to speak louder 2.
After prayers Mr. Langton came in : much serious discourse : he
warned us all to profit by his situation ; and, applying to me,
who stood next him, exhorted me to lead a better life than he
had done. ' A better life than you, my dear Sir ! ' I repeated.
He replied warmly, ' Don't compliment now3.' He told Mr. Lang-
ton that he had the night before enforced on 4 a powerful
argument to a powerful objection against Christianity.
He had often thought it might seem strange that the Jews,
who refused belief to the doctrine supported by the miracles of
our Saviour, should after his death raise a numerous church ; but
he said that they expected fully a temporal prince, and with this
idea the multitude was actuated when they strewed his way with
palm-branches on his entry into Jerusalem ; but finding their
expectations afterwards disappointed, rejected him, till in process
of time, comparing all the circumstances and prophecies of the
Old Testament, confirmed in the New, many were converted ;
that the Apostles themselves once believed him to be a temporal
1 Life, iv. 407 ; for Nichols's par- Sir, louder, I entreat you, or you
ticulars of his conversation. In the pray in vain." ' Mr. Croker records
Preface to the Gentleman's Maga- the following communication from
sine, 1784, are given some verses by Mr. Hoole: — 'When I called upon
Nichols, where Johnson is men- him, the morning after he had pressed
tioned, with this footnote on his me rather roughly to read louder, he
name : ' To whom the writer of these said, " I was peevish yesterday ; you
lines had the pleasure of shewing must forgive me : when you are as
them in the last interview with which old and as sick as I am, perhaps you
he was honoured by this illustrious may be peevish too." I have heard
pattern of true piety. " Take care of him make many apologies of this
your eternal salvation," and " Re- kind.' Life, iv. 409.
member to observe the Sabbath ; let 3 * Alas ! when I receive these un
it never be a day of business, nor due compliments, I am ready to
wholly a day of dissipation," were answer with my old friend Johnson —
parts of his last solemn farewell. " Sir, I am a miserable sinner." '
" Let my words have their due Hannah More's Memoirs, ii. 437.
weight," he added ; " they are those 4 See post in Mr. Windham's
of a dying man." ' Diary, where such an argument was
2 ' He more than once interrupted enforced on Dec. 7.
Mr. Hoole with, " Louder, my dear
prince
158 Narrative by John Hook.
prince. He said that he had always been struck with the resem
blance of the Jewish passover and the Christian doctrine of
redemption J. He thanked us all for our attendance, and we left
him with Mr. Langton.
Thursday, Dec. 9. — Called in the evening ; did not see him, as
he was engaged.
Friday, Dec. 10. — Called about eleven in the morning; saw
Mr. La Trobe there 2 : neither of us saw the Doctor, as we under
stood he wished not to be visited that day. In the evening
I sent him a letter, recommending Dr. Dalloway (an irregular
physician3) as an extraordinary person for curing the dropsy.
He returned me a verbal answer that he was obliged to me,
but that it was too late. My son read prayers with him this
day.
Saturday, Dec. n. — Went to Bolt Court about twelve; met
there Dr. Burney, Dr. Taylor, Sir John Hawkins, Mr. Sastres,
Mr. Paradise4, Count Zenobia, and Mr. Langton. Mrs. Hoole
called for me there : we both went to him ; he received us very
kindly ; told me he had my letter, but ' it was too late for
doctors, regular or irregular? His physicians had been with
him that day, but prescribed nothing. Mr. Cruikshanks came ;
the Doctor was rather cheerful with him ; he said, ' Come, give
me your hand,' and shook him by the hand, adding, ' You shall
make no other use of it now;' meaning he should not examine
his legs. Mr. Cruikshanks wished to do it, but the Doctor would
not let him. Mr. Cruikshanks said he would call in the evening.
Sunday, Dec. 12. — Was not at Bolt Court in the forenoon ; at
St. Sepulchre's school 5 in the evening with Mrs. Hoole, where we
saw Mrs. Gardiner and Lady Rothes 6 ; heard that Dr. Johnson
was very bad, and had been something delirious. Went to Bolt
Court about nine, and found there Mr. Windham and the Rev.
Mr. Strahan. The Doctor was then very bad in bed, which
1 See post in Mr. Windham's die by the College.' Ib. ii. 354, n. 2.
Diary. 4 Ante, i. 105, n.
2 A Moravian. Life, iv. 410. 5 The Ladies' Charity School, to
3 Johnson was not the man to which Johnson was a subscriber,
admit ' an irregular physician '—in Letters, \. 1 56.
other words, a quack. With George 6 Bennet Langton' s wife. Life, ii.
Ill he would have said, ' I shall 146.
I think
Narrative by John Hoole. 159
I think he had only taken to that day : he had now refused
to take any more medicine or food. Mr. Cruikshanks came
about eleven : he endeavoured to persuade him to take some
nourishment, but in vain. Mr. Windham then went again to
him, and, by the advice of Mr. Cruikshanks, put it upon this
footing — that by persisting to refuse all sustenance he might
probably defeat his own purpose to preserve his mind clear, as
his weakness might bring on paralytic complaints that might
affect his mental powers1. The Doctor, Mr. Windham said,
heard him patiently ; but when he had heard all, he desired to
be troubled no more. He then took a most affectionate leave of
Mr. Windham 2, who reported to us the issue of the conversation,
for only Mr. De Moulins was with them in the chamber. I did
not see the Doctor that day, being fearful of disturbing him,
and never conversed with him again. I came away about half-
past eleven with Mr. Windham.
Monday, Dec. 13. — Went to Bolt Court at eleven o'clock in
the morning ; met a young lady coming down stairs from the
Doctor, whom, upon inquiry, I found to be Miss Morris (a sister
to Miss Morris, formerly on the stage 3). Mrs. De Moulins told
me that she had seen the Doctor ; that by her desire he had been
told she came to ask his blessing, and that he said, * God bless
you ! ' I then went up into his chamber, and found him lying
very composed in a kind of doze : he spoke to nobody. Sir John
Hawkins, Mr. Langton, Mrs. Gardiner, Rev. Mr. Strahan and
Mrs. Strahan, Doctors Brocklesby and Butter, Mr. Steevens, and
Mr. Nichols the printer, came ; but no one chose to disturb him
by speaking to him, and he seemed to take no notice of any
person. While Mrs. Gardiner and I were there, before the rest
came, he took a little warm milk in a cup, when he said some
thing upon its not being properly given into his hand : he breathed
very regular, though short, and appeared to be mostly in a calm
sleep or dozing, I left him in this state, and never more saw
him alive. In the evening I supped with Mrs. Hoole and my
1 Life, iv. 415 ; ante, ii. 128. May i, 1769.' HOOLE. Her likeness
z Life, iv. 415, n. i. as Hope nursing Love was painted
3 ' She appeared in Juliet at Covent by Reynolds. Northcote's Reynolds,
Garden, Nov. 26, 1768, and died i. 185.
son
160 Narrative by John Hoole.
son at Mr. Braithwaite's T, and at night my servant brought me
word that my dearest friend died that evening about seven
o'clock : and next morning I went to the house, where I met
Mr. Seward2; we went together into the chamber, and there
saw the most awful sight of Dr. Johnson laid out in his bed,
without life !
1 ' That amiable and friendly man, of the wits of the age.' Life, iv.
who, with modest and unassuming 278.
manners, has associated with many 2 Life, Hi. 123.
ANECDOTES OF JOHNSON
PUBLISHED BY G. KEARSLEY*
MR. JOHNSON was not unacquainted with Savage's frailties ;
but. as he has not long since said to a friend on this subject, * he
knew his heart, and that was never intentionally abandoned ; for
though he generally mistook the love for the practice of virtue, he
was at all times a true and sincere believer a.'
Savage living very intimately with most of the wits of what
is called our Augustan age, gave Mr. Johnson many anecdotes,
with which he has since enriched his Biographical Prefaces3.
The following, however, I believe, has never appeared in print
before.
Sir Richard Steele 4, Phillips 5, and Savage, spending the night
together, at a tavern, in Gerard-street 6, Soho, they sallied out in
the morning — all very much intoxicated with liquor — when they
were accosted by a tradesman, going to his work, at the top of
1 This Life is said to be by William of mankind.' Works, viii. 190.
Cooke, known as ' Conversation For principles and practice see
Cooke.' Nichols, Lit. Hist. vii. 467. Life, i. 418 ; ii. 341 ; v. 210, 359.
He derived his name from his poem ' No man's religion ever survives
On Conversation. Ib. He was a his morals.' South's Sermons, ed.
member of the Essex Head Club. 1823,1.291.
Life, iv. 437. 3 The Lives of the Poets. Life, iv.
2 Johnson in his Life of Savage 35, n. I.
says that ' in cases indifferent [where 4 For anecdotes of Steele and the
friends or enemies were not con- bailiffs see Works, viii. 104.
cerned] he was zealous for virtue, s No doubt Ambrose Philips, who
truth and justice; he knew very knew Steele. Works, viii. 388.
well the necessity of goodness to 6 At the Turk's Head in this
the present and future happiness street the Literary Club met at first.
VOL. II. M Hedge-lane
162 Anecdotes of Johnson
Hedge-lane1 ; who, after begging their pardon for the liberty of
addressing them on the subject, told them — 'that, at the bottom
of the lane, he saw two or three suspicious-looking fellows, who
appeared to be bailiffs, — so that, if any of them were apprehensive
of danger, he had better take a different route.' — Not one of
them waited to thank the man, but flew off, different ways, each
conscious, from the embarrassments of his own affairs, that such
a circumstance was very likely to happen to himself. (Page 27.)
Johnson, soon after the publication of his English Dictionary,
made a proposal to a number of Booksellers convened for that
purpose, of writing a Dictionary of Trade and Commerce 2. This
proposal went round the room without any answer, when a well-
known son of the trade 3 since dead, remarkable for the abrupt
ness of his manners, replied, ' Why, Doctor, what the D — 1 do
you know of trade and commerce 4 ? ' The Doctor very modestly
answered, ' Why, Sir, not much I confess in the practical line —
but I believe I could glean, from different authors of authority
on the subject, such materials as would answer the purpose very
weliV (Page 34.)
When Cave got into affluence, it was usual with him, upon the
1 Hedge Lane was near Charing Dr. Smith, who had never been in
Cross. Dodsley's London, iii. 178. trade, could not expect to write well
For Johnson's visit to a poor man on that subject any more than a
there see Life, iii. 324. lawyer upon physick,' he replied : —
2 Johnson contributed the preface * He is mistaken, Sir : a man who
to Rolt's Dictionary of Trade and has never been engaged in trade
Commerce. Life, i. 358. See also himself may undoubtedly write well
ante, i. 412. upon trade, and there is nothing
^ * As Physicians are called the which requires more to be illustrated
Faculty and Counsellors at Law the by philosophy than trade does.'
Profession, the Booksellers of London Life, ii. 430.
are denominated the Trade. Johnson Of those * in the practical line '
disapproved of these denominations.' Smith had a low opinion. ' People
Life, iii. 285. of the same trade,' he writes, ' seldom
4 Johnson did not receive a doctor's meet together, even for merriment
degree till many years later ; neither and diversion, but the conversation
is it likely that he would have left ends in a conspiracy against the
the form of the question unrebuked. public, or in some contrivance to
5 When Boswell told Johnson of raise prices.' Wealth of Nations,
Sir John Pringle's observation ' that ed. 1811, i. 177. See also ib. i. 352.
receipt
Published by G. Kearsley. 163
receipt of any large sum of money, to make his wife the cash-
keeper. The frequency of this, and the dependence which he
had on her management of it, tempted her to practice 'the
little pilfering temper of a wife ; ' she therefore from time to
time accumulated a considerable sum, which Cave knew nothing
of. Her last illness was an asthma ; and though she every day
grew worse, she reserved this secret from her husband till her
breath grew so short, that she had only time to tell him ' she had
secreted a part of the money which he occasionally gave her,
which she laid out in India bonds.' She was immediately after
taken in convulsions, and died before she had time to say where
they were hid, or in whose possession they were deposited.
Cave on her death made every possible enquiry after his property,
but such is the integrity of some friendships ', the bonds were never
afterwards found x. (Page 47.)
At Lichfield he used sometimes to recall the memory of past
times, and enter into all the boyish sports and gambols of his
youth, and it is but a very few years back, that he obliged the
master of the school where he had been educated, to restore to
the boys, an annual entertainment of Furmenti 2, which had been
practised in his days, but had for some time been discontinued.
(Page 66.)
On the Sunday night preceding his death, he was obliged to
be turned in the bed by two strong men employed for that
purpose. He was at intervals likewise delirious ; and in one of
those fits, seeing a friend at the bed-side, he exclaimed, * What,
1 For this anecdote see Life, iv. affected by her death, but in a few
319, where the wife's name is not days lost his sleep and his appetite,
mentioned : — ' Her husband said, he which he never recovered.' Works,
was more hurt by her want of con- vi. 433.
fidence in him, than by the loss of 2 Johnson defines furmenty as
his money. " I told him," said food made by boiling wheat in milk.
Johnson, "that he should console In the Gentleman's Magazine, 1783,
himself ; for perhaps the money p. 578 ; 1785, p. 96, it is stated that
might be found, and he was sure furmety or frumity is eaten in many
that his wife was jwz*."' places on Mothering Sunday (Mid-
Johnson in his Life of Cave says: — Lent-Sunday) and on Christmas
1 Cave seemed not at first much Eve.
M 2 will
164 Anecdotes of Johnson
will that fellow never have done talking poetry to me x ? ' He
recovered his senses before morning, but spoke little after this.
His heart, however, was not unemployed, as by his fixed atten
tion, and the motion of his lips, it was evident he was pouring
out his soul in prayer. (Page 79.)
Dr. Johnson's face was composed of large coarse features,
which, from a studious turn, when composed, looked sluggish,
yet awful and contemplative. The head at the front of this
book is esteemed a good likeness ; indeed so much, that when
the Doctor saw the drawing, he exclaimed, ' Well, thou art an
ugly fellow, but still, I believe thou art like the original V The
Doctor sat for this picture to Mr. Trotter3, in February 1782, at
the request of Mr. Kearsley, who had just furnished him with
a complete list of all his works, for he confessed he had forgot
more than half what he had written 4.
His face, however, was capable of great expression, both in
respect to intelligence and mildness, as all those can witness who
have seen him in the flow of conversation, or under the influence
of grateful feelings. I am the more confirmed in this opinion,
by the authority of a celebrated French Physiognomist, who has,
in a late publication on his art 5, given two different etchings of
Dr. Johnson's head, to shew the correspondence between the
countenance and the mind.
1 Perhaps he was haunted by the * Hayter,' wrote Macaulay, ' has
thought of the writer of whom he painted me for his picture of the
said : ' I never did the man an House of Commons. I cannot judge
injury ; but he would persist in of his performance. I can only say,
reading his tragedy to me.3 Life, as Charles the Second did on a
iv. 244, n. 2. similar occasion, " Odds fish, if I am
2 Mme. D'Arblay records that like this, I am an ugly fellow." ' Tre-
Johnson saw her examining ' a small velyan's Macaulay, ed. 1877, ii.i6.
engraving of his portrait from the 3 Trotter had worked with Blake,
picture of Reynolds. He began see- Gilchrist's Slake, i. 33, 57. This
sawing for a moment or two in picture is, I believe, the one in the
silence, and then, with a ludicrous Library of Pembroke College.
half laugh, peeping over her shoulder, 4 Life,\. 112; iii. 321.
he called out :— ' Ah ha !— Sam 5 Lavater's Essay on Physiognomy.
Johnson !— I see thee !— and an Life, iv. 422. In the English transla-
ugly dog thou art!' Memoirs of tion, published in 1789, a third etching
Dr. Burney, ii. 180. is given, i. 194.
In
Published by G. Kearsley. 165
In respect to person, he was rather of the heroic stature, being
above the middle size ; but though strong, broad, and muscular,
his parts were slovenly put together. When he walked the
streets, what with the constant roll of his head, and the con
comitant motion of his body, he appeared to make his way by
that motion, independent of his feet x. (Page 87.)
Amongst the poets of his own country, next to Shakespeare,
he admired Milton2 ; and though in some parts of the life of this
great man, he has been rather severe on his political character,
there are others where he bestows the highest praises on his
learning and genius. To this I am happy to add another
eulogium, which I heard from him in conversation a few months
before his death : — ' Milton (says he) had that which rarely fell
to the lot of any man — an unbounded imagination, with a store
of knowledge equal to all its calls V (Page 99.)
In his conversation he was learned, various, and instructive,
oftener in the didactic than in the colloquial line, which might
have arisen from the encouragement of his friends, who generally
flattered him with the most profound attention — and surely it
was well bestowed ; for in those moments, the great variety of
his reading broke in upon his mind, like mountain floods, which
1 Boswell quoting this description therefore learned.' Works, vii. 130.
says : — ' His peculiar march is de- Edward FitzGerald wrote to Pro
scribed in a very just and picturesque fessor C. E. Norton on Jan. 23,
manner.' Life, iv. 71. 1876: — *I don't think I've read
2 For Johnson's estimate of Shake- Milton these forty years ; the whole
speare see Life, ii. 86, n. I, and of scheme of the poem, and certain
Milton, ib. i. 230 ; iv. 40 ; ante, i. parts of it, looming as grand as any-
216. thing in my memory; but I never
3 ' The thoughts which are occa- could read ten lines together without
sionally called forth in the progress stumbling at some pedantry that
[of Paradise Lost} are such as could tipped me at once out of Paradise,
only be produced by an imagination or even Hell, into the schoolroom,
in the highest degree fervid and worse than either. . . . Tennyson cer-
active, to which materials were sup- tainly then thought Milton the sub-
plied by incessant study and un- limest of all the gang ; his diction
limited curiosity. . . . Milton had modelled on Virgil, as perhaps
considered creation in its whole Dante's.' Letters of Edward Fitz-
extent, and his descriptions are Gerald, 1894. ii. 193.
he
\
i66 Anecdotes of Johnson
he poured out upon his audience in all the fullness of informa
tion — not but he observed Swift's rule, ' of giving every man time
to take his share in the conversation x ; ' and when the company
thought proper to engage him in the general discussion of little
matters, no man threw back the ball with greater ease and
pleasantry.
He always expressed himself with clearness and precision, and
seldom made use of an unnecessary word — each had its due
weight, and stood in its proper place. He was sometimes a little
too tenacious of his own opinion, particularly when it was in
danger of being wrested from him by any of the company.
Here he used to collect himself with all his strength — and here
he shewed such skill and dexterity in defence, that he either
tired out his adversary, or turned the laugh against him, by the
power of his wit and irony 2.
In this place, it would be omitting a very singular quality of
his, not to speak of the amazing powers of his memory 3. The
great stores of learning which he laid in, in his youth, were not
of that cumbrous and inactive quality, which we meet with in
many who are called great scholars ; for he could, at all times,
draw bills upon this capital with the greatest security of being
paid. When quotations were made against him in conversation,
either by applying to the context, he gave a different turn to the
passage, or quoted from other parts of the same author, that
which was more favourable to his own opinion : — if these failed
him, he would instantly call up a whole phalanx of other
authorities, by which he bore down his antagonist with all the
superiority of allied force.
But it is not the readiness with which he applied to different
authors, proves so much the greatness of his memory, as the
extent to which he could carry his recollection upon occasions.
I remember one day, in a conversation upon the miseries of old
age> a gentleman in company observed, he always thought
Juvenal's description of them to be rather too highly coloured —
1 Ante, i. 169. give room by a pause for any other
' Swift did not claim the right of speaker.' Works, viii. 225.
talking alone ; for it was his rule, 2 Life, ii. 100.
when he had spoken a minute, to 8 Ib. v. 368 ; ante, ii. 85, 87.
upon
Published by G. Kearsley. 167
upon which the Doctor replied — ' No, Sir — I believe not ; they
may not all belong to an individual, but they are collectively
true of old age V Then rolling about his head, as if snuffing up
his recollection, he suddenly broke out : —
' Ille humero, hie lumbis,' &c
down to ' et nigra veste senescant.'
(Satire x. 227-245.)
Some time previous to Dr. Hawkesworth's publication of his
beautiful Ode on Life 2, he carried it down with him to a friend's
house in the country to retouch. Dr. Johnson was of this party ;
and as Hawkesworth and the Doctor lived upon the most inti
mate terms 3, the former read it to him for his opinion. ' Why,
Sir,' says Johnson, ' I can't well determine on a first hearing,
read it again, second thoughts are best'; Dr. Hawkesworth
complied, after which Dr. Johnson read it himself, approved of
it very highly, and returned it.
Next morning at breakfast, the subject of the poem being re
newed, Dr. Johnson, after again expressing his approbation of
it, said he had but one objection to make to it, which was, that
he doubted its originality. Hawkesworth, alarmed at this,
challenged him to the proof; when the Doctor repeated the
whole .of the poem, with only the omission of a very few lines ;
f What do you say now, Hawkey ? ' says the Doctor. ' Only this,'
replied the other, ' that I shall never repeat any thing I write
before you again, for you have a memory that would convict
any author of plagiarism in any court of literature in the world.'
I have now the poem before me, and I find it contains no less
than sixty -eight lines. (Page 100.)
His life reflected the purity and integrity of his writings. His
friendships, as they were generally formed on the broad basis of
virtue, were constant, active, and unshaken. And what rendered
1 Life, iii. 337. the Life of Swift, speaking of
* Gentleman's Magazine, 1747, p. Hawkesworth, mentions 'the inti-
337. macy of our friendship.' See ante,
3 Johnson at the beginning of i. 166.
them
i68 Anecdotes of Johnson
them still more valuable, he knew and practised that sort which
was most applicable to the wants of his friends. To those in
need he liberally opened his purse — To others he gave up his
time, his interest, and his advice x ; and having an honest con
fidence that this last was of some weight in the world, he scarcely
let a proper opportunity slip without enforcing it ; particularly
to young men, whom [sic] he hoped would remember what fell
from such high authority ; even to children he could be playfully
instructive. (Page 112.)
Some years since the Doctor coming up Fleet-street, at about
two o'clock in the morning, he was alarmed with the cries of
a person seemingly in great distress. He followed the voice
for some time, when, by the glimmer of an expiring lamp, he
perceived an unhappy female, almost naked, and perishing on
a truss of straw, who had just strength enough to tell him,
* she was turned out by an inhuman landlord in that condition,
and to beg his charitable assistance not to let her die in the
street.' The Doctor melted at her story, desired her to place
her confidence in God, for that under him he would be her
protector. He accordingly looked about for a coach to put her
into ; but there was none to be had : ' his charity, however,
worked too strong/ to be cooled by such an accident. He
kneeled down by her side, raised her in his arms, wrapped his
great coat about her. placed her on his back, and in this condition
carried her home to his house.
Next day her disorder appearing to be venereal, he was ad
vised to abandon her ; but he replied, ' that may be as much her
misfortune as her fault ; I am determined to give her the chance
of a reformation'; he accordingly kept her in his house above
thirteen weeks, where she was regularly attended by a physician,
who recovered her.
The Doctor, during this time, learned more of her story ; and
finding her to be one of those unhappy women who are impelled
to this miserable life more from necessity than inclination, he set
1 To Mr. Thrale he wrote : — ' The wanted is evidently impertinent.'
advice that is wanted is commonly Letters, ii. 162. For the assistance
unwelcome, and that which is not he gave see ante, i. 1 80, 236, 279.
on
Published by G. Kearsley. 169
on foot a subscription, and established her in a milliner's shop in
the country, where she was living some years ago in very con
siderable repute *. (Page 24.)
His last advice to his friends was upon this subject [the re
ligious duties], and, like a second Socrates, though under the
sentence of death, from his infirmities, their eternal welfare was
his principal theme — To some he enjoy ned it with tears in his
eyes, reminding them, 'it was the dying request of a friend, who
had no other way of paying the large obligations he owed them
— but by this advice 2.' (Page 1 1 8.)
[The five following anecdotes, attributed to Kearsley by
Croker (vol. x. p. 99), are not in my edition of the Life of
Johnson published by him.]
The emigration of the Scotch to London being a conversation
between the Doctor and Foote, the latter said he believed the
number of Scotch in London were as great in the former as the
present reign. ' No, Sir ! ' said the Doctor, ' you are certainly
wrong in your belief : but I see how you're deceived ; you can't
distinguish them now as formerly, for the fellows all come here
breeched of late years V
' Pray, Doctor,' said a gentleman to him, * is Mr. Thrale a man
of conversation, or is he only wise and silent ? ' ' Why, Sir, his
conversation does not show the minute hand ; but he strikes the
hour very correctly V
On Johnson's return from Scotland, a particular friend of his
was saying, that now he had had a view of the country, he was
in hopes it would cure him of many prejudices against that
1 Life, iv. 321. in the Duke of Cumberland's army
2 Ante, ii. 146, 151. had been compelled in part to adopt
3 After the Rebellion of 1745 to the southern garb. When they passed
wear the Highland dress was for- in review before him he said : —
bidden by law. Any one wearing it, * They look very well ; have breeches,
1 not being a landed man, or the son and are the better for that.' Foot-
of a landed man,' was, on conviction, steps of Dr. Johnson in Scotland,
'to be delivered over to serve as p. 171.
a soldier.' The loyal Highlanders 4 Ante, i. 423 ; Life, i. 494.
nation
170 Anecdotes of Johnson published by G. Kearsley.
nation, particularly in respect to the fruits. ' Why, yes, Sir/
said the Doctor ; ' I have found out that gooseberries will grow
there against a south wall ; but the skins are so tough, that it is
death to the man who swallows one of them V
Being asked his opinion of hunting, he said, * It was the labour
of the savages of North America, but the amusement of the
gentlemen of England */
When Johnson was told of Mrs. Thrale's marriage with Piozzi,
the Italian singer, he was dumb with surprise for some moments ;
at last, recovering himself, he exclaimed with great emotion,
* Varium et mutabile semper fcemina 3 ! '
1 * Things which grow wild here the sloe to perfection?' Life, ii.
must be cultivated with great care 77.
in Scotland. Pray, now, (throwing 2 For his fox-hunting see ante, i.
himself back in his chair, and 287.
laughing) are you ever able to bring 3 Aeneid, iv. 569.
ANECDOTES AND REMARKS
BY LADY KNIGHT*
. WILLIAMS was a person extremely interesting. She
had uncommon firmness of mind, a boundless curiosity2, re
tentive memory, and strong judgment. She had various powers
of pleasing. Her personal afflictions and slender fortune she
seemed to forget, when she had tjhe power of doing an act of
kindness : she was social, cheerful, and active, in a state of body
that was truly deplorable. Her regard to Dr. Johnson was
formed with such strength of judgment and firm esteem, that
her voice never hesitated when she repeated his maxims, or
recited his good deeds ; though upon many other occasions her
want of sight led her to make so much use of her ear, as to
affect her speech. Mrs. Williams was blind before she was
acquainted with Dr. Johnson 3. She had many resources, though
none very great. With the Miss Wilkinsons she generally
passed a part of the year, and received from them presents, and
1 Published by Croker (vols. i. iv. 239. * Had she had good humour
275 ; iii. 9 ; x. 48) ' from a paper and prompt elocution, her universal
transmitted by Lady Knight to Rome curiosity and comprehensive know-
to Mr. Hoole,' and printed in the ledge would have made her the de-
Eurofiean Magazine, October, 1799. light of all that knew her.' Letters,
Lady Knight was the widow of ii. 334. ' Her curiosity was universal,
Admiral Sir Charles Knight and her knowledge was very extensive,
mother of Cornelia Knight, who had ajfid she sustained forty years of
the audacity to write a continuation misery with steady fortitude.' Ib.
of Rasselas, under the name of p. 336.
Dinarbas. The two stories were 3 According to Boswell, she made
sometimes printed in one volume. his acquaintance when she came to
2 Johnson wrote on her death : — London ' in hopes of being cured of
' Her acquisitions were many and a cataract in both her eyes, which
her curiosity universal ; so that she afterwards ended in total blindness.'
partook of every conversation.' Life, Life, i. 232.
from
172 Anecdotes and Remarks
from the first who died, a legacy of clothes and money. The
last of them, Mrs. Jane, left her an annual rent ; but from the
blundering manner of the will, I fear she never reaped the
benefit of it. The lady left money to erect a hospital for ancient
maids ; but the number she had allotted being too great for
the donation, the Doctor [Johnson] said, it would better to
expunge the word maintain, and put in to starve such a number
of old maids. They asked him what name should be given
it: he replied, 'Let it be called JENNY'S WHIM1.' Lady
Philips2 made her a small annual allowance, and some other
Welsh ladies, to all of whom she was related. Mrs. Mon
tagu, on the death of Mr. Montagu, settled upon her (by
deed) ten pounds per annum 3. As near as I can calculate,
Mrs. Williams had about thirty-five or forty pounds a year. The
furniture she used [in her apartment in Dr. Johnson's house]
was her own 4 ; her expenses were small, tea and bread and butter
being at least half of her nourishment. Sometimes she had a
servant or charwoman to do the ruder orifices of the house 5 ; but
she was herself active and industrious. I have frequently seen
her at work. Upon remarking one day her facility in moving
about the house, searching into drawers, and finding books, with
out the help of sight, ' Believe me (said she), persons who cannot
do these common offices without sight, did but little while they
enjoyed that blessing.' Scanty circumstances, bad health, and
blindness, are surely a sufficient apology for her being sometimes
impatient : her natural disposition was good, friendly, and
humane.
As to her poems, she many years attempted to publish
them : the half-crowns she had got towards the publication,
she confessed to me, went for necessaries, and that the greatest
1 ' Here [at Vauxhall] we picked Life, v. 276.
up Lord Granby, arrived very drunk 3 Letters, i. 371, n. I ; ii. 190.
from Jenny's Whim.' Walpole's 4 ' She left her little ' to the Ladies'
Letters, ii. 212. Jenny's Whim was Charity School. Ib. ii. 334.
a tavern at the end of the wooden 5 Johnson had his man-servant,
bridge at Chelsea, where Victoria and a female-servant, to whom he
Station now stands. Wheatley's bequeathed ^100 stock. Life, iv.
London, 1891, ii. 305. 402, n. 2.
2 Lady Philipps of Picton Castle.
pain
by Lady Knight. 173
pain she ever felt was from the appearance of defrauding her
subscribers x : ' but what can I do ? the Doctor [Johnson] always
puts me off with <; Well, we'll think about it;" and Gold
smith says: " Leave it to me 2." ' However, two of her friends
under her directions, made a new subscription at a crown, the
whole price of the work, and in a very little time raised sixty
pounds. Mrs. Carter was applied to by Mrs. Williams's desire,
and she, with the utmost activity and kindness procured a long
list of names. At length the work was published, in which is
a fine written but gloomy tale of Dr. Johnson3. The money
(i5c/.) Mrs. Williams had various uses for, and a part of it was
funded4.
Mrs. Williams's account of Johnson's wife was, that she had
a good understanding and great sensibility, but inclined to be
satirical. Her first husband died insolvent 5 ; her sons were
much disgusted with her for her second marriage ; perhaps
because they, being struggling to get advanced in life, were
mortified to think she had allied herself to a man who had not
any visible means of being useful to them. However, she
always retained her affection for them. While they resided in
Gough Court6, her son, the officer7, knocked at the door, and
asked the maid if her mistress was at home? She answered,
1 In the Gentleman's Magazine his theatre, by which she got ^200.
for September, 1750, p. 432, pro- Ib. i. 393, n. I ; Letters, i. 53.
posals were issued for printing her Miss Hawkins, with a foolish inso-
Essays in Verse and Prose by sub- lence unrivalled even by her father's,
scription. The price was to be five writes (Memoirs, i. 152): — 'Miss
shillings, of which half was to be paid Williams being a gentlewoman, con-
on subscribing. In 1759 Johnson ferred on her protector the character
was signing ' receipts with her name of gentleman.' See ante, ii. 141, for
for subscribers.' Letters, i. 87. The Miss Hawkins's description of her
book was not published till 1766. dress.
Life, ii. 25. 5 If he died insolvent ' her settle-
2 In 1763 Goldsmith ' went with ment was secured.' Life, i. 95,
Johnson, strutting away,' from the n. 3.
Mitre, and calling out to Boswell, 6 Gough Square.
'I go to Miss Williams.' Life, i. 7 A captain in the navy, who left
421. his sister a fortune of ,£10,000. Life,
3 The Fountains. Ib. ii. 26. ii. 462. His name was Jarvis (ib. i.
4 In 1756 Garrick, at Johnson's 94), given him, no doubt, after his
desire, gave her a benefit-night at mother's family.
'Yes,
174 Anecdotes and Remarks
1 Yes, Sir, but she is sick in bed.' { O ! ' says he, ' if it is so,
tell her that her son Jervas [sic] called to know how she did;'
and was going away. The maid begged she might run up to
tell her mistress, and, without attending his answer, left him.
Mrs. Johnson, enraptured to hear her son was below, desired the
maid to tell him she longed to embrace him. When the maid
descended, the gentleman was gone, and poor Mrs. Johnson
was much agitated by the adventure: it was the only time
he ever made an effort to see her. Dr. Johnson did all he
could to console his wife ; but told Mrs. Williams, « Her son
is uniformly undutiful; so I conclude, like many other sober
men, he might once in his life be drunk,, and in that fit nature
got the better of his pride/
Mrs. Williams was never otherwise dependent on Dr. Johnson,
than in that sort of association, which is little known in the
great world. They both had much to struggle through ; and
I verily believe, that whichever held the purse, the other partook
what want required T. She was, in respect to morals, more rigid
than modern politeness admits; for she abhorred vice, and
was not sparing of anger against those who threw young folks
into temptation. Her ideas were very just in respect to the
improvement of the mind, and her own was well stored. I have
several of her letters : they are all written with great good sense
and simplicity, and with a tenderness and affection, that far
excel all that is called politeness and elegance. I have been
favoured with her company some weeks at different times, and
always found her temper equal2, and her conversation lively.
I never passed hours with more pleasure than when I heard
her and Dr. Johnson talk of the persons they valued, or upon
subjects in which they were much interested. One night I
remember Mrs. Williams was giving an account of the Wilkin
sons being at Paris, and having had consigned to their care
1 Except during the six years in ever drew on her purse. For the
which he was living in chambers last twenty-one years he was never
(1759-65) he gave her an apartment in need, and at the time of his
(probably two rooms) in his own poverty they were not living in the
house from 1752 till her death in same house.
1783. It is most unlikely that he 2 Ante, ii. 141.
the
by Lady Knight. 175
the letters of Lady Wortley Montagu, on which they had
bestowed great praise. The Doctor said, ' Why, Madam, there
might be great charms to them in being intrusted with honour
able letters ; but those who know better of the world, would
have rather possessed two pages of true history1.' One day
that he came to my house to meet many others, we told him
that we had arranged our party to go to Westminster Abbey,
would not he go with us ? ' No,' he replied ; ' not while I can keep
out2.' Upon our saying, that the friends of a lady had been
in great fear lest she should make a certain match for herself,
he said, 'We that are his friends have had great fears for him.'
I talked to Mrs. Thrale much of dear Mrs. Williams. She said
she was highly born ; that she was very nearly related to
a Welsh peer ; but that, though Dr. Johnson had always pressed
her to be acquainted with her, yet she could not ; she was afraid
of her 3. I named her virtues ; she seemed to hear me as if
I had spoken of a newly discovered country 4.
I think the character of Dr. Johnson can never be better
summed up than in his own words in Rasselas, chapter xlii5.
1 Horace Walpole wrote to Lady son's house' (Life, iv. 235, 239),
Craven on Jan. 2, 1787 (Letters, ix. Macaulay includes her in the ' crowd
87) : — * I am sorry to hear, Madam, of wretched old creatures who could
that by your account Lady Mary find no other asylum ' than his
Wortley was not so accurate and house ; whose ' peevishness and
faithful as modern travellers. ... As ingratitude could not weary out his
you rival her in poetic talents, I had benevolence.' Essays, ed. 1843, i.
rather you would employ them to cele- 390.
brate her for her nostrum [inocula- It was not till 1778 that discord
tionl than detect her for romancing.' was caused by his taking in three
2 For his visit to the Abbey with more poor women. Life, iii. 222.
Goldsmith see Life, ii. 238, and for Towards the end of Miss Williams'
the satisfaction he felt on being told life her illness increased her peevish-
that he would be buried there see ness. Ib. iii. 128.
ib. iv. 419. 5 It is doubtless to chapter xl
3 Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale that she refers, where the astronomer
from Lichfield in 1775 : — c Mrs. is thus described : — ' His compre-
Williams wrote me word that you hension is vast, his memory capa-
had honoured her with a visit, and cious and retentive, his discourse is
behaved lovely? Letters, i. 360. methodical, and his expression clear.
4 In spite of all the evidence of His integrity and benevolence are
her ' valuable qualities,' and of ' the equal to his learning. His deepest
blank that her departure left in John- researches and most favourite studies
He
176 Anecdotes and Remarks by Lady Knight.
He was master of an infinite deal of wit, which proceeded from
depth of thought, and of a humour which he used sometimes
to take off from the asperity of reproof. Though he did
frequently utter very sportive things, which might be said to
be playing upon the folly of some of his companions, and
though he never said one that could disgrace him, yet I think,
now that he is no more, the care should be to prove his steady
uniformity in wisdom, virtue, and religion. His political prin
ciples ran high, both in church and state : he wished power to
the king and to the heads of the church, as the laws of England
have established ; but I know he disliked absolute power J, and
I am very sure of his disapprobation of the doctrines of the
church of Rome; because, about three weeks before we came
abroad, he said to my Cornelia, 'You are going where the
ostentatious pomp of church ceremonies attracts the imagi
nation; but, if they want to persuade you to change your
religion, you must remember, that, by increasing your faith,
you may be persuaded to become a Turk2.' If these were not
the words, I have kept up to the express meaning.
are willingly interrupted for any x 'When I say that all govern-
opportunity of doing good by his ments are alike, I consider that in no
counsel or his riches. To his closest government power can be abused
retreat, in his most busy moments, long. Mankind will not bear it. If
all are admitted that want his assist- a sovereign oppresses his people to
ance : — " For though I exclude idle- a great degree, they will rise and cut
ness and pleasure, I will never," says off his head. There is a remedy in
he, " bar my doors against charity. human nature against tyranny, that
To man is permitted the contempla- will keep us safe under every form of
tion of the skies, but the practice of government.' Life, ii. 170.
virtue is commanded."' Johnson 2 See Letters, i. 147, for the advice
was also likened to Imlac, the man he gave to F. A. Barnard, the King's
of learning. Life, ii. 119, n. I ; Librarian, when he was going to
iii. 6. He describes himself also in Italy, and ante> i. 210.
chapter xlv.
ANECDOTES BY HANNAH MORE1
[' HANNAH MORE visited London in 1773 or 1774, in company
with two of her sisters ; her introduction to Mr. and Mrs. Garrick
took place in about a week after her arrival. It was afterwards
his delight to introduce his new friend to the best and most
gifted society.' Memoirs, i. 47.
In her childhood she had been wont 'to make a carriage of
a chair, and then to call her sisters to ride with her to London to
see bishops and booksellers.' Ib. i. 14.
She was born in 1745 ten months before the Young Pretender
invaded England, and died in 1833, the year after the great
Reform Bill was passed.
'Her nurse, a pious old woman, had lived in the family of
Dryden, whose son she had attended in his last illness, and the
inquisitive mind of the little Hannah was continually prompting
her to ask for stories about the poet Dryden.' Ib. i. n. It
must have been Dryden's third son, Erasmus Henry, whom the
old woman nursed. He died in 1710, nine years after his father.
Scott's Life of Dryden, ed. 1834, p. 396.
When Macaulay was six years old Hannah More wrote to
him : — ' Though you are a little boy now, you will one day, if
it please God, be a man ; but long before you are a man I hope
you will be a scholar. I therefore wish you to purchase such
books as will be useful and agreeable to you theny and that
you employ this very small sum in laying a little tiny corner
stone for your future library.' A year or two afterwards she
wrote : — ' You must go to Hatchard's and choose another book.
I think we have nearly exhausted the Epics. What say you
1 From Memoirs of the Life and More, by William Roberts, Esq.
Correspondence of Mrs. Hannah 4 vols. 1834.
VOL. II. N to
178 Anecdotes by Hannah More.
to a little good prose? Johnson's Hebrides or Walton's Lives/
&c. Trevelyan's Macaulay, ed. 1877, i. 35.
Macaulay wrote to the editor of the Edinburgh Review in
1837 : — 'Hannah More was exactly the very last person in the
world about whom I should choose to write a critique. She
was a very kind friend to me from childhood. Her notice first
called out my literary tastes. Her presents laid the foundation
of my library. She was to me what Ninon was to Voltaire, —
begging her pardon for comparing her to a strumpet, and yours
for comparing myself to a great man. She really was a
second mother to me. I have a real affection for her memory.
I, therefore, could not write about her, unless I wrote in her
praise ; and all the praise which I could give to her writings,
even after straining my conscience in her favour, would be far
indeed from satisfying any of her admirers. I will try my hand
on Temple and on Lord Clive.' Macvey Napier Corres., p. 192.
Macaulay's sister (afterwards Lady Trevelyan) was christened
Hannah More. He wrote to tier when he Was reviewing Croker's
Boswell\ — 'Trie lady whom Johnson abused for flattering him
was certainly, according to Croker, Hannah More [Life, iii. 293].
Another ill-natured sentence about a Bath lady whom Johnson
called "empty-headed" is also applied to your godmother.'
Trevelyan's Macaulay, ed. 1877, i. 231. For Croker's assertion
that the Bath lady (Life, iii. 48) was Hannah More there was no
foundation. Her Memoirs published three years later than his
Boswell show that she was in London when this epithet was
applied by Johnson to ' a lady then in Bath.' ' I find,' she wrote
to her sister, ' that Mr. Boswell called upon you at Bristol with
Dr. Johnson.' Post, p. 1 85, n.
Nearly fifty years after she first met Johnson, De Quihcey
described her conversation as * brilliant and instructive.' De
Quincey's Works, ed. 1872, xvi. 504.]
THE desire Hannah More had long felt to see Dr. Johnson,
was speedily gratified. Her first introduction to him took place
at the house of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who prepared her, as he
handed her upstairs, for the possibility of his being in one of
his moods of sadness and silenee.
She
Anecdotes by Hannah More.
179
She was surprised at his coming to meet her as she entered
the room, with good humour in his countenance, and a macaw
of Sir Joshua's in his hand * ; and still more, at his accosting
her with a verse from a Morning Hymn which she had written
at the desire of Sir James Stonehouse 2. In the same pleasant
humour he continued the whole of the evening 3. An extract
from the letters of one of her sprightly sisters, to the family
at home, will afford the best picture of the intercourse and
scenes in which Hannah was now beginning to bear a part.
Memoirs, i. 48.
London, 1774.
'We have paid another visit to Miss Reynolds. She had
sent to engage Dr. Percy (Percy's collection4 — now you know
him,) quite a sprightly modern, instead of a rusty antique, as
1 Sir Joshua, says Northcote, in
troduced this macaw into several of
his pictures. One of the house
maids, whose portrait Northcote
painted, was looked upon by the
bird as his enemy. When he saw
the likeness ' he quickly spread his
wings, and in great fury ran to it,
and stretched himself up to bite at
the face.' He would do this whenever
he saw the picture, and did it 'in
the presence of Edmund Burke,
Dr. Johnson, and Dr. Goldsmith.'
Northcote's Reynolds, i. 252.
2 A physician of Northampton,
who settled in Bristol and entered
the church. Memoirs of H. More,
i. 30. ' My counsellor, physician and
divine/ ehe calls him ; ' who first
awakened me to some sense of re
ligious things.' Ib. iii. 191.
3 Nevertheless, if we can trust
Malone's story, it was on this even
ing that he administered to her a
most severe rebuke. ' She very soon
began to pay her court to him in the
most fulsome strain. " Spare me,
I beseech you, dear Madam," was
his reply. She still laid it on.
" Pray, Madam, let us have no more
of this," he rejoined. Not paying
any attention to these warnings, she
continued still her eulogy. At length,
provoked by this indelicate and vain
obtrusion of compliments, he ex
claimed, "Dearest Lady, consider
with yourself what your flattery is
worth, before you bestow it so
freely." ' Life, iv. 341 ; ante, i. 273.
That this rebuke was administered
is beyond a doubt (see Life, iv. 341,
n. 6) ; that it was administered this
evening seems unlikely.
In 1780, describing an evening
with him at Miss Reynold's, she
says (post, p. 189): — 'As usual,
he laughed when I flattered him.'
It was to Miss Reynolds that John
son, two years earlier, said, ' I was
obliged to speak, to let her [Miss
More] know that I desired she would
not flatter me so much.' Life, iii. 293.
Nearly forty years later, writing
of Addison and Johnson, she said : —
' I love and honour those two men
in a very high degree, though the
term love rather belongs to Addison,
honour to Johnson.' Memoirs, iii. 340.
4 She refers to the Reliques of
Ancient English Poetry.
2 I expected
180 Anecdotes by Hannah More.
I expected r. He was no sooner gone, than the most amiable
and obliging of women (Miss Reynolds.) ordered the coach, to
take us to Dr. Johnson's very own house ; yes, Abyssinia's
Johnson ! Dictionary Johnson ! Rambler's, Idler's, and Irene's
Johnson ! Can you picture to yourselves the palpitation of our
hearts as we approached his mansion. The conversation turned
upon a new work of his, just going to the press, (the Tour to
the Hebrides 2,) and his old friend Richardson 3. Mrs. Williams,
the blind poet4, who lives with him, was introduced to us.
She is engaging in her manners ; her conversation lively and
entertaining. Miss Reynolds told the doctor of all our rapturous
exclamations on the road. He shook his scientific head at
Hannah, and said, " She was a silly thing" When our visit was
ended, he called for his hat, (as it rained) to attend us down
a very long entry to our coach, and not Rasselas could have
acquitted himself more en cavalier 5. We are engaged with him
at Sir Joshua's, Wednesday evening. What do you think of us ?
I forgot to mention, that not finding Johnson in his little
parlour when we came in, Hannah seated herself in his great
chair, hoping to catch a little ray of his genius ; when he heard
it, he laughed heartily, and told her it was a chair on which
he never sat 6. He said it reminded him of Boswell and himself
when they stopt a night at the spot (as they imagined) where
the Weird Sisters appeared to Macbeth : the idea so worked
upon their enthusiasm, that it quite deprived them of rest :
however they learnt, the next morning, to their mortification,
1 Miss Burney wrote of him ' sought after.' Ib. iii. 314.
seventeen years later : — 'The Bishop 4 She published in 1766 a volume
is perfectly easy and unassuming, of Miscellanies. Most of her poems
very communicative, and though not were corrected by Johnson. Ib. ii.
very entertaining because too prolix, 25 ; ante, i. 403 ; ii. 172.
he is otherwise intelligent and of 5 He was living in Johnson's
good conversation.' Mme. D'Ar- Court as late as May, 1775, but by
blay's Diary, v. 256. March, 1776, had removed to Bolt
2 Johnson wrote on June 21, Court. Life, ii. 375, 427. For his
1774: — 'Yesterday I put the first conducting Madame de BoufHers to
sheets of the Journey to the Hebrides her coach and ' showing himself a
to the press.' Life, ii. 278. man of gallantry,' see ib. ii. 405, and
3 The author of Clarissa — one of post, p. 260.
the very few men whom Johnson 6 Life, iv. 232, n. I.
that
Anecdotes by Hannah More.
181
that they had been deceived, and were quite in another part
of the country V
Johnson afterwards mentioned to Miss Reynolds how much
he had been touched with the enthusiasm which was visible
in the whole manner of the young authoress, which was evidently
genuine and unaffected. Memoirs, i. 49.
London, 1775.
I had yesterday the pleasure of dining in Hill Street, Berkeley
Square, at a certain Mrs. Montagu's, a name not totally obscure 2.
The party consisted of herself, Mrs. Carter 3, Dr. Johnson,
Solander4, and Matty5, Mrs. Boscawen6, Miss Reynolds, and
Sir Joshua, (the idol of every company ;) some other persons of
high rank and less wit, and your humble servant. . . .
Mrs. Montagu received me with the most encouraging kindness ;
she is not only the finest genius, but the finest lady I ever saw :
she lives in the highest style of magnificence ; her apartments
1 There seems some mistake in
her narrative. Boswell recorded in
his Journal : — ' In the afternoon we
drove over the very heath where
Macbeth met the witches according
to tradition. . . . We got to Fores
at night.' Ib. v. 115. Johnson
says : — ' We went forwards the same
day to Fores, the town to which
Macbeth was travelling when he
met the weird sisters in his way.
This to an Englishman is classick
ground. Our imaginations were
heated, and our thoughts recalled
to their old amusements.' Works,
ix. 21.
2 Mrs. Montagu was not yet in
her new house in Portman Square,
from which Johnson and Boswell
were a few years later excluded on
account of the offence given by
the Life of Lyttelton. Life, iv. 64.
H. More writes of it in 1783 : — ' To
all the magnificence of a very superb
London house is added the scenery
of a country retirement.' Memoirs,
i. 241. In 1784, after spending a
fortnight with Mrs. Montagu, she
writes : — * One may say of her, what
Johnson has said of somebody else,
that " she never opens her mouth
but to say something" ' Ib. i. 329.
3 Known as 'the learned Mrs.
Carter.' Life, i. 122, n. 4.
' Her calm orderly mind,' wrote H.
More (Memoirs, iii. 306), ' dreaded
nothing so much as irregularity ; she
was therefore most strictly high
church, and most scrupulously for
bore reading any book, however
sound or sober, which proceeded
from any other quarter. She would
on no account have read Doddridge
or Pascal.'
4 Ante, i. 280.
5 Either Dr. Matthew Maty (Ltje,
i. 284), or his son Paul Henry Maty
(ante, i. 237).
6 She wrote to Hannah More five
years later : — ' I have claims upon
Dr. Johnson ; but as he never knows
me when he meets me, they are all
stifled in the cradle.' H. More's
Memoirs,\. 191. See also Life, iii. 331.
and
1 82 Anecdotes by Hannah More.
and table are in the most splendid taste ; but what baubles are
these when speaking of a Montagu ! her form (for she has no
body] is delicate even to fragility ; her countenance the most
animated in the world ; the sprightly vivacity of fifteen, with
the judgment and experience of a Nestor z. . . . Dr. Johnson
asked me how I liked the new tragedy of Braganza2. I was
afraid to speak before them all, as I knew a diversity of
opinion prevailed among the company ; however, as I thought
it a less evil to dissent from the opinion of a fellow creature,
than to tell a falsity, I ventured to give my sentiments ; and
was satisfied with Johnson's answering, * You are right, madam.'
[From Miss SARAH MORE to one of her sisters.]
London, 1775.
Tuesday evening we drank tea at Sir Joshua's with Dr. John
son. Hannah is certainly a great favourite. She was placed
next him, and they had the entire conversation to themselves.
They were both in remarkably high spirits ; it was certainly her
lucky night ! I never heard her say so many good things. The
old genius was extremely jocular, and the young one very
pleasant. You would have imagined we had been at some
comedy had you heard ;pur peals of laughter. They, indeed,
tried which could -' pepper the highest V and it is not clear to me
that the lexicographer was really the highest seasoner. Memoirs,
1.52.
[Miss H. MORE to one of her sisters.]
London, 1776.
Just returned from spending one of the most agreeable days
of my life, with the female Maecenas of Hill Street ; she engaged
me five or six days ago to dine with her, and had assembled
1 For ' her trying for this same air myself so young again.' Ib. vi. 190 ;
and manner,' see Life, iii. 244, n. 2. ante, ii. 46.
2 By Robert Jephson. Horace 3 ' Till his relish grown callous,
Walpole wrote the Prologue. Wai- almost to disease,
pole's Letters, i. Preface, p. 77. On Who peppered the highest was
Feb. 18 of this year he wrote :— surest to please.'
' Braganza was acted last night with Goldsmith's Retaliation.
prodigious success ... I went to the It seems improbable that this 'pep-
rehearsal with all the eagerness of pering' could have followed John-
eighteen, and was delighted to find son's rebuke.
half
Anecdotes by Hannah More. 183
half the wits of the age. The only fault that charming woman
has, is, that she is fond of collecting too many of them together
at one time z. There were nineteen persons assembled at dinner,
but after the repast, she has a method of dividing her guests, or
rather letting them assort themselves into little groups of five
or six each. I spent my time in going from one to the other of
these little societies, as I happened more or less to like the
subjects they were discussing. Mrs. Scott2, Mrs. Montagu's
sister, a very good writer, Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Barbauld 3, and
a man of letters, whose name I have forgotten, made up one of
these little parties. When we had canvassed two or three sub
jects, I stole off and joined in with the next group, which was
composed of Mrs. Montagu, Dr. Johnson, the Provost of Dublin4,
and two other ingenious men. In this party there was a diversity
of opinions, which produced a great deal of good argument and
reasoning. There were several other groups less interesting to
me, as they were more composed of rank than talent, and it was
amusing to see how the people of sentiment singled out each
other, and how the fine ladies and pretty gentlemen naturally
slid into each other's society.
1 Miss Burney describes 'a very a mean thing to bring thus every
fine public breakfast3 Mrs. Mon- idle word into judgment— the judg-
tagu gave, at which there were * not ment of the public/ Barbauld's
fewer than four or five hundred Works, ed. 1825, ii. 158. In the
people. It was like a full Ranelagh same year she wrote :— ' Mrs. Mon-
by daylight.' Mme. D'Arblay's tagu, who entertains all the aris-
Diary, v. 302. tocrats [the French fugitives], had
For 'public dinners,' see Life, iv. invited a Marchioness of BoufHers and
367, n. 3. Johnson describes how her daughter to dinner. After making
Swift * opened his house by a publick her wait till six the marchioness
table two days a week.' Works, viii. came, and made an apology for her
208. daughter, that just as she was going
2 The sister of Mrs. Montagu, to dress she was seized with a degout
and the wife of that George Lewis momentanee \sic\ du monde, and
Scott, who once 'with Johnson and could not wait on her.' Ib. p. 139.
Hercules made out the triumvirate 4 Dr. John Hely Hutchinson. On
comically enough.' Ante, i. 180. his appointment Topham Beauclerk
3 Ante, i. 157, and Life, ii. 408. wrote to Lord Charlemont : — 'I
Mrs. Barbauld, reading Boswell's agree with you that there never was
Life of Johnson the month it came a more scandalous thing than making
out, writes: — 'It is like going to the man provost that is made.' Char-
Ranelagh ; you meet all your ac- lemont Papers, Hist. MSS. Comm.,
quaintance ; but it is a base and 1891^.231.
I had
184 Anecdotes by Hannah More.
I had the happiness to carry Dr. Johnson home from Hill
Street, though Mrs. Montagu publicly declared she did not think
it prudent to trust us together, with such a declared affection on
both sides. She said she was afraid of a Scotch elopement. He
has invited himself to drink tea with us to-morrow, that we may
read Sir Eldred together. I shall not tell you what he said of
it, but to me the best part of his flattery was, that he repeats all
the best stanzas by heart, with the energy, though not with the
grace of a Garrick. Memoirs, i. 63.
London, 1776.
Yesterday was another of the few sun-shiny-days with which
human life is so scantily furnished. We spent it at Garrick's, he
was in high good humour, and inexpressibly agreeable. Here
was likely to have been another jostling and intersecting of our
pleasures ; but as they knew Johnson would be with us at seven,
Mrs. Garrick was so good as to dine a little after three, and all
things fell out in comfortable succession. We were at the
reading of a new tragedy, and insolently and unfeelingly pro
nounced against it. We got home in time : I hardly ever spent
an evening more pleasantly or profitably. Johnson, full of
wisdom and piety, was very communicative. To enjoy Dr. John
son perfectly, one must have him to oneself, as he seldom cares
to speak in mixed parties. Our tea was not over till nine,
we then fell upon Sir Eldred : he read both poems through,
suggested some little alterations in the first, and did me the
honour to write one whole stanza * ; but in the Rock, he has not
altered a word. Though only a tea-visit, he staid with us till
twelve. I was quite at my ease, and never once asked him to
eat 2 (drink he never does any thing, but tea). Memoirs, i. 64.
[From a letter by one of HANNAH MORE'S sisters.]
London, 1776.
If a wedding should take place before our return, don't be
surprised, — between the mother of Sir Eldred, and the father of
1 ' My scorn has oft the dart re- Must every heart subdue.'
pell'd Hannah More's Works, ed. 1834,
Which guileful beauty threw, v. 241.
But goodness heard, and grace 2 For his dislike of being pressed
beheld, to eat see post, p. 278 n.
my
Anecdotes by Hannah More. 185
my much-loved Irene ; nay, Mrs. Montagu says if tender words
are the precursors of connubial engagements, we may expect
great things ; for it is nothing but l child ' — ' little fool ' — ' love,'
and ' dearest.' After much critical discourse, he turns round to
me, and with one of his most amiable looks, which must be seen
to form the least idea of it, he says, * I have heard that you are
engaged in the useful and honourable employment of teaching
young ladies.' Upon which, with all the same ease, familiarity,
and confidence, we should have done had only our own dear
Dr. Stonehouse been present, we entered upon the history of our
birth, parentage, and education ; shewing how we were born with
more desires than guineas ; and how, as years increased our
appetites, the cupboard at home began to grow too small to
gratify them ; and how, with a bottle of water, a * bed, and a
blanket, we set out to seek our fortunes ; and how we found
a great house, with nothing in it ; and how it was like to remain
so, till, looking into our knowledge-boxes, we happened to find
a little taming, a good thing when land is gone z, or rather none :
and so at last, by giving a little of this little laming to those
who had less, we got a good store of gold in return ; but how,
alas ! we wanted the wit to keep it — ' I love you both/ cried the
inamorato — c I love you all five — I never was at Bristol — I will
come on purpose to see you 2 — what ! five women live happily
together! — I will come and see you — I have spent a happy
evening — I am glad I came — God for ever bless you; you
live lives to shame duchesses.' He took his leave with so
much warmth and tenderness, we were quite affected at his
manner. ...
Dr. Johnson and Hannah, last night, had a violent quarrel, till
at length laughter ran so high on all sides, that argument was
1 * When land is gone and money we learn from a letter to her sisters,
spent, in which she says : — * I find Mr.
Then learning is most excel- Boswell called upon you at Bristol
lent-' with Dr. Johnson ; he told me so this
2 He visited it with Boswell in the morning when he breakfasted here
spring of this year. Life, iii. 50. [at the Garricks] with Sir William
Boswell does not mention their Forbes and Dr. Johnson.' Memoirs,
calling on the Mores. That they did i. 80. Of this breakfast neither she
so, when Hannah was in London, nor Boswell gives any account.
confounded
i86 Anecdotes by Hannah More.
confounded in noise ; the gallant youth, at one in the morning,
set us down at our lodgings. Memoirs, i. 66.
[From HANNAH MORE to her family.]
London, 1776.
At six, I begged leave to come home [from the Garricks], as
I expected my petite assembled a little after seven. Mrs. Garrick
offered me all her fine things, but, as I hate admixtures of finery
and meanness, I refused every thing except a little cream, and
a few sorts of cakes. They came at seven. The dramatis
persona were, Mrs. Boscawen, Mrs. Garrick, and Miss Reynolds ;
my beaux were Dr. Johnson, Dean Tucker x, and last, but not
least in our love, David Garrick. You know that wherever
Johnson is, the confinement to the tea-table is rather a durable
situation ; and it was an hour and a half before I got my enlarge
ment. However, my ears were opened, though my tongue was
locked, and they all stayed till near eleven.
Garrick was the very soul of the company, and I never saw
Johnson in such perfect good humour. Sally knows we have
often heard that one can never properly enjoy the company of
these two unless they are together 2. There is great truth in
this remark ; for after the Dean and Mrs. Boscawen (who were
the only strangers) were withdrawn, and the rest stood up to go,
Johnson and Garrick began a close encounter, telling old stories,
* e'en from their boyish days 3,' at Lichfield. We all stood round
them above an hour, laughing in defiance of every rule of de
corum and Chesterfield 4. I believe we should not have thought
1 Josiah Tucker, Dean of Glou- has a most shrewd and keen old face.'
cester, who had published Tracts Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, iv. 182.
about the American Colonies, to 2 Boswell describes how one day
which Johnson had replied in Taxa- ' Garrick played round Johnson with
tion no Tyranny ( Works, vi. 259) a fond vivacity, taking hold of the
and Burke with great severity in his breasts of his coat, and, looking up
Speech on American Taxation. Burke in his face with a lively archness,
had said : — ' This Dr. Tucker is al- complimented him on the good
ready a dean, and his earliest labours health which he seemed then to
in this vineyard will, I suppose, raise enjoy ; while the sage, shaking his
him to a bishopric.' Burke's Select head, beheld him with a gentle com-
Works, ed. E. J. Payne, i. 140. placency.' Life, ii. 82.
Miss Burney writing of him in 3 Othello, Act i. sc. 3, 1. 132.
1788 says, ' He is past eighty, and 4 Life, ii. 378, n. 2.
of
Anecdotes by Hannah More. 187
of sitting down or of parting, had not an impertinent watchman
been saucily vociferous. Johnson outstaid them all, and sat with
me half an hour. Memoirs, j. 69.
London, 1776.
Did I ever tell you what Dr. Johnson said to me of my friend
the Dean of Gloucester ? I asked him what he thought of him.
His answer was verbatim as follows : ' I look upon the Dean of
Gloucester to be one of the few excellent writers of this period.
I differ from him in opinion, and have expressed that difference
in my writings ; but I hope what I wrote did not indicate what
I did not feel, for I felt no acrimony. No person, however
learned, can read his writings without improvement. He is sure
to find something he did not know before.' I told him the Dean
did not value himself on elegance of styie. He said he knew
nobody whose style was more perspicuous, manly, and vigorous,
or better suited to his subject. I was not a little pleased
with this tribute to the worthy Dean's merit, from such a judge
of merit ; that man, too, professedly differing from him in
opinion
Keeping bad company leads to all other bad -things. I have
got the headache to-day, by raking out so late with that gay
libertine Johnson. Do you know — / did not, that he wrote
a quarter of the Adventurer I ? I made him tell me all that he
wrote in the ' fugitive pieces 2.' Memoirs, i. 70.
Adelphi3, 1776.
Did I tell you we had a very agreeable day at Mrs. Bosca wen's?
I like Mr. Berenger 4 prodigiously. I met the Bunbury family
0*t Sir Joshua's. Mr. Boswell (Corsican Boswell) was here last
/light 5 ; he is a very agreeable good-natured man ; he perfectly
Adores Johnson : they have this day set out together for Oxford,
Lichfield, &c., that the Doctor may take leave of all his old
friends and acquaintances, previous to his great expedition across
1 He did not write so much as a eighth was Johnson's. Life, ii. 270 ;
quarter. and ante, i. 184.
2 Tom Davies, in Johnson's ab- 3 Mrs. Garrick's house. Lzfe,ly.gg.
sence in Scotland and without his * Ante, i. 254.
leave, published two volumes en- 5 Boswell, who keeps his narrative
titled Miscellaneous and Fugitive so closely to what concerns Johnson,
Pieces, of which all but about an does not mention this.
the
i88 Anecdotes by Hannah More.
the Alps x. I lament his undertaking such a journey at his time
of life, with beginning infirmities ; I hope he will not leave his
bones on classic ground. Memoirs, i. 74.
[From H. MORE to one of her sisters.]
London, 1778.
I dined with the Garricks on Thursday ; he went with me in
the evening, intending only to set me down at Sir Joshua's, where
I was engaged to pass the evening. I was not a little proud to
be the means of bringing such a beau into such a party. We
found Gibbon2, Johnson, Hermes Harris, Burney, Chambers,
Ramsay, the Bishop of St. Asaph, Boswell, Langton, &c. ; and
scarce an expletive man or woman among them. Garrick put
Johnson into such good spirits that I never knew him so enter
taining or more instructive. He was as brilliant as himself, and
as good-humoured as any one else3. Memoirs, i. 146.
London, 1780.
I spent a very comfortable day yesterday with Miss Reynolds ;
only Dr. Johnson, and Mrs. Williams and myself. He is in but
poor health, but his mind has lost nothing of its vigour. He
never opens his mouth but one learns something ; one is sure
either of hearing a new idea, or an old one expressed in an
1 Johnson wrote to Boswell on quaintance I have had, that my soul
March 5 of this year : — ' Of my never came into their secret.' Me-
company you cannot in the next moirs, ii. 415. The same year she
month have much, for Mr. Thrale recorded : — ' It is now, I think, five
will take me to Italy, he says, on or six years since I have been en-
the first of April. ... If you will come abled, by the grace of God, in a good
to me, you must come very quickly; degree, to give up all human studies,
and even then I know not but we I have not allowed myself to read
may scour the country together, for any classic or pagan author for
I have a mind to see Oxford and many years —I mean by myself.' Ib.
Lichfield before I set out on this ii. 420.
long journey.' Life, ii. 423. The 3 Boswell, after a full account of
tour was given up on the sudden the dinner, describes ' the rich as-
death of the Thrales' only son. Ib. semblage ' he found in the drawing-
p. 468. See also ante, i. 263. room. He continues : — ' After wan-
2 On Jan. 19, 1794, Hannah More dering about in a kind of pleasing
recorded : — ' Heard of the death of distraction for some time, I got into
Mr. Gibbon. . . . He too was my a corner with Johnson, Garrick, and
acquaintance. Lord, I bless thee, Harris.' Life, iii. 256.
considering how much infidel ac-
original
Anecdotes by Hannah More.
189
original manner. We did not part till eleven. He scolded me
heartily, as usual, when I differed from him in opinion, and, as
usual, laughed when I flattered him z. I was very bold in com
batting some of his darling prejudices : nay, I ventured to defend
one or two of the Puritans 2, whom I forced him to allow to be
good men, and good writers. He said he was not angry with
me at all for liking Baxter 3. He liked him himself; ' but then,'
said he, ' Baxter was bred up in the establishment, and would
have died in it, if he could have got the living of Kidderminster.
He was a very good man.' Here he was wrong ; for Baxter was
offered a bishopric after the Restoration 4.
I never saw Johnson really angry with me but once ; and his
1 Ante, ii. 179, n.
2 Her grandmother ' used to tell
her younger relatives, that they would
have known how to value gospel
privileges, had they lived, like her,
in the days of persecution, when, at
midnight, pious worshippers went
with stealthy steps through the
snow, to hear the words of inspira
tion delivered by a holy man at her
father's house ; while her father
with a drawn sword guarded the
entrance/ Memoirs, i. 7.
3 ' I asked him (writes Boswell)
what works of Richard Baxter's I
should read. He said, "Read any
of them ; they are all good." ' Life,
iv. 226. This is a somewhat daring
assertion, for ' in forty years Baxter
wrote 1 68 books, 85 of them quarto
volumes.' Printed uniformly in oc
tavo they would fill 'nearly 40,000
closely printed pages.' J. H. Davies's
Life of Baxter, pp. 443-4.
His works were ordered by the
University of Oxford to be publicly
burnt in the Court of the Schools.
James \Vildings' Account Book,
p. 252. Nevertheless not only John
son praised them, but Barrow said
that ' Baxter's practical writings were
never mended, and his controversial
ones seldom confuted.' Calamy's
Baxter, ed. 1702, p. 701.
In a note on the Life, iv. 226, I
quote Hazlitt's story, that at Kidder
minster * Baxter was almost pelted
by the women for maintaining from
the pulpit that "Hell was paved with
infants' skulls." ' This story had its
origin, I conjecture, in the following
circumstance : — * Once all the igno
rant rout were raging mad against
him for preaching to them the doc
trine of original sin, and telling them,
" That infants before regeneration
had so much guilt and corruption
as made them loathsome in the eyes
of God. Whereupon they vented it
about in the country, that he preached
that God hated and loathed infants.
So that they railed at him as he
passed through the streets."' Ca
lamy's Baxter, p. 22.
For his Humble Advice to Parlia
ment that officers be authorized to
whip those that cannot pay the fines
for the non-observance of the Lord's
day see Barclay's Inner Life of the
Religious Societies of the Common
wealth, 1876, p. 183.
4 ' Calamy and Baxter refused the
sees of Lichfield and Hereford.'
Burnet's History of His Own Time,
ed. 1818, i. 204.
displeasure
190
Anecdotes by Hannah More.
displeasure did him so much honour that I loved him the better
for it. I alluded rather flippantly, I fear, to some witty passage
in Tom Jones : he replied, c I am shocked to hear you quote
from so vicious a book. I am sorry to hear you have read it :
a confession which no modest lady should ever make T. I scarcely
know a more corrupt work/ I thanked him for his correction ;
assured him I thought full as ill of it now as he did, and had
only read it at an age when I was more subject to be caught by
the wit, than able to discern the mischief. Of Joseph Andrews
I declared my decided abhorrence 2. He went so far as to refuse
to Fielding the great talents which are ascribed to him, and
broke Out into a noble panegyric on his competitor, Richardson ;
who, he said, was as superior to him in talents as in virtue ; and
whom he pronounced to be the greatest genius that had shed its
lustre on this path of literature 3. Memoirs, i. 168.
1 Miss Burney at the age of seven
teen recorded in her Diary : — ' I am
now going to charm myself for the
third time, with poor Sterne's Sen
timental Journey! Early Diary of
F. Burney ', i. 45. At Streatham she
recorded a conversation — Johnson
was .not present— when ' Candide was
produced, and Mrs. Thrale read
aloud the part .concerning Poco
curante ; and really the cap fitted so
well that Mr. Seward could not
attempt to dispute it.' Mme. D'Ar-
blay's Diary, ed. 1 842, i. 226.
2 ' I never read Joseph Andrews/
said Johnson. Life, ii. 174.
3 Ib. ii. 48, 173 ; ante, i. 282.
Smollett describes Richardson's
novels as ' a species of writing equally
new and extraordinary, where, min
gled with much superfluity, we find
a sublime system of ethics, an amaz
ing knowledge and command of
human nature.' History of England,
ed. 1800, v. 382.
Hannah More wrote in 1822: —
' I have been really looking for time
to read one or two of Walter Scott's
novels. In my youth Clarissa and Sir
Charles Grandison were the reigning
entertainment. Whatever objections
may be made to them in certain
respects, they contain more maxims
of virtue, and sound moral principle
than half the books called moral.'
Memoirs, iv. 145.
* Richardson's conversation,' writes
Hawkins (p. 384), 'was of the
preceptive kind, but it wanted the
diversity of Johnson's, and had
no intermixture of wit and humour.
Richardson could never relate a
pleasant story, and hardly relish one
told by another : he was ever think
ing of his own writings, and listening
to the praises which, with an emulous
profusion, his friends were inces
santly bestowing on them ; he would
scarce enter into free conversation
with any one that he thought had
not read Clarissa or Sir Charles
Grandison, and at best, he could not
be said to be a companionable man.'
Neither was Hawkins 'a clubable
man.' Life, i. 27, n.
4 That Richardson (with all his
The
Anecdotes by Hannah More. 191
Adplphi, 1780.
The other evening they carried me to Mrs. Ord's assembly x ;
I was quite dressed for the purpose. Mrs. Garrick gave me
an elegant cap, and put it on herself; so that I was quite sure
of being smart : but how short-lived is all human joy ! and see
what it is to live in the country ! When I came into the draw
ing-rooms, I found thern full of company, every human creature
in deep mourning, and I, poor I, all gorgeous in scarlet. I never
recollected that the mourning for some foreign Wilhelmina
Jaquelina was not over. However I got over it as well as I
could, made an apology, lamented the ignorance in which I had
lately lived, and I hope this false step of mine will be buried in
oblivion. There was all the old set, the Johnsons, the Burneys,
the Chapones 2, the Thrales, the Smelts 3, the Pepyses 4, the
Ramsays 5, and so on ad infinitum. Even Jacobite Johh'son 6 was
in deep mourning. Memoir s> i. 170.
London, 1780.
I was, the other night, at Mrs. Ord's. Every body was there,
and in such a crowd I thought myself well off to be wedged in
twaddle) is better than Fielding, I am the high appellation of the King's
quite certain. There is nothing at all friend.' This appellation is to be dis-
comparable to Lovelace in all Field- tinguished from that of the Court
ing, whose characters are common faction — 'the King's friends.' Life,
and vulgar types of squires, ostlers, iv. 165, n. 3.
lady's maids, &c., very easily drawn, 4 Ante, i. 244.
. . . Think of' Clarissa being one of IVtr. Pepys, advising Hannah More
Alfred de Musset's favourite books. to choose interesting subjects for her
It reminded me of our Tennyson letters, as they might hereafter be
... of his once saying to me of published, continues : — ' Why don't
Clarissa, "I love those large still you wear your ring, my dear ?' says
books." ' Letters of Edward Fitz- a father, in some play, to his daughter.
gerald, ii. 131, 243. ( Because, papa, it hurts me when
1 Johnson mentions going to Mrs. anybody squeezes my hand.' ' What
Ord's in April, 1780. Letters, ii. 146, business have you to have your hand
X49- squeezed?' 'Certainly not; but
2 The ' admirable ' Mrs. Chapone. still you know, papa, one would like
Life, iv. 246 ; Letters, ii. 141. to keep it in squeezable order' Me-
3 Ib. ii. 149, n. 4. 'Mr. Smelt,' moirs, iii. 380.
writes H. More (Memoirs, i. 274*, 5 Life, iii. 331.
'was preceptor to the Prince of Wales, 6 For Johnson's 'affectation of
and as he would receive no settled Jacobitism ' see ib. i. 429.
appointment he is distinguished by
with
1 92 Anecdotes by Hannah More.
with Mr. Smelt, Langton, Ramsay, and Johnson. Johnson told
me he had been with the king that morning, who enjoined him
to add Spencer [sic] to his Lives of the Poets x. I seconded the
motion ; he promised to think of it, but said the booksellers had
not included him in their list of the poets 2. . . .
Instead of going to Audley Street 3, where I was invited,
I went to Mrs. Reynolds's4, and sat for my picture. Just as
she began to paint, in came Dr. Johnson, who staid the whole
time, and said good things by way of making me look well.
I did not forget to ask him for a page for your memorandum
book 5, and he promised to write, but said you ought to be con
tented with a quotation ; this, however, I told him you would
not accept. Memoirs, i. 174.
London, 1781.
Mrs. B.6 having recently desired Johnson to look over her
new play of the ' Siege of Sinope ' before it was acted, he always
found means to evade it ; at last she pressed him so closely
that he actually refused to do it, and told her that she herself,
by carefully looking it over, would be able to see if there was
any thing amiss as well as he could. 6 But, sir/ said she, ' I have
no time. I have already so many irons in the fire.' c Why
then, madam,' said he, (quite out of patience) 'the best thing
I can advise you to do is, to put your tragedy along with your
irons.' Memoir 's, i. 200.
London, 1781.
c Praise/ says Dr. Johnson, * is the tribute which every man is
expected to pay for the grant of perusing a manuscript 7.' . . .
Think of Johnson's having apartments in Grosvenor Square 8 !
1 Life, iv. 410. which, as her brother said, * made
2 ' The edition of The English other people laugh and him cry,' see
Poets was not an undertaking directed Northcote's Reynolds, ii. 160.
by Johnson, but he was to furnish 5 A collection of autographs of
a Preface and Life to any poet the eminent persons which her sister was
booksellers pleased.' Ib. iii. 137. making at that time. Note by
3 Mrs. Boscawen's house. See Roberts.
Memoirs, i. 162. 6 Frances Brooke. Ante, i. 322.
4 Hannah More hitherto has 7 For the ' exquisite address ' with
generally spoken of her as Miss Rey- which he once evaded paying this
nolds. She was born in 1729 (Tay- tribute, see Life, iii. 373.
lor's Reynolds, i. 4), and was fifty 8 ' Mr. Thrale (writes Boswell)
years old. For her oil-paintings, had removed, I suppose by the soli-
but
Anecdotes by Hannah More.
but he says it is not half so convenient as Bolt Court * He has
just finished the Poets ; Pope is the last x. I am sorry he has lost
so much credit by Lord Lyttleton's ; he treats him almost
with contempt ; makes him out a poor writer, and an envious
man 2; speaks well only of his * Conversion of St. Paul/ of which
he says, ' it is sufficient to say it has never been answered V
Mrs. Montagu and Mr. Pepys, his two chief surviving friends,
are very angry 4. Memoirs, i. 206.
London, 1781.
Tuesday we were a small and very choice party at Bishop
Shipley's5. Lord and Lady Spencer6, Lord and Lady Al-
citation of Mrs. Thrale, to a house in
Grosvenor Square.' Life, iv. 72.
1 ' Some time in March [1781]
I finished the Lives of the Poets.'
Ante, i. 96. On March 5 he wrote
to Strahan that he had done them.
Letters, ii. 207. He did not in
writing them keep to the order in
which they were published.
2 Miss More, I suppose, is think
ing of the passage in which it is said
that ' Lyttelton's zeal was considered
by the courtiers not only as violent,
but as acrimonious and malignant.'
Perhaps however she had in mind
a passage in the Life of Shenstone.
Works, viii. 410; ante, ii. 3, n.
3 Johnson describes it as ' a trea
tise to which infidelity has never
been able to fabricate a specious
answer.' Works, viii. 490.
4 Life, iv. 64, 65, n. i ; ante, i. 244.
5 Boswell records a dinner on
Thursday, April 12, 'at a Bishop's,
where were Sir Joshua Reynolds,
Mr. Berrenger, and some more com
pany.' He adds, ' I have unfor
tunately recorded none of Johnson's
conversation.' Life, iv. 88. If, as
seems most likely, it was this same
dinner, his failure to keep a record
was, no doubt, due to his being
'much disordered with wine.' His
journal he had not kept diligently
VOL. II. O
for some weeks. I have little doubt
that it was on Tuesday, as Miss
More says, that the dinner took
place. It was in Passion Week, and
though Johnson made an * ingenious
defence of his dining twice abroad
in Passion Week' at the houses of
Bishops (#.), yet I do not think he
would have dined on the eve of
Good Friday. On that day he wrote
to Mrs. Thrale (who had just lost
her husband) : — * The business of
Christians is now for a few days
in their own bosoms.' Letters,
ii. 214.
Shipley, Bishop of St. Asaph,
Johnson described as * knowing and
conversible ' (Letters, i. 400), and as
a man * who comes to every place.'
Ib. ii. 149.
He and Watson of Llandaff were
the only Bishops who, at a meeting
of their body convened by the Arch
bishop of Canterbury in 1787, at the
instance of Pitt, voted against the
maintenance of the Test and Cor
poration Acts. Life of Watson, i.
181.
Heber married his grand-daughter.
6 The first Earl Spencer. He died
in 1783. ' He succeeded,' writes his
grandson, * to an enormous property
in money, as well as land, before he
was of age ; and he died at forty-
thorpe
Anecdotes by Hannah More.
thorpe1, Sir Joshua, Langton, Boswell, Gibbon, and to my
agreeable surprise, Dr. Johnson, were there.
Mrs. Garrick and he had never met since her bereavement2.
I was heartily disgusted with Mr. Boswell, who came upstairs
after dinner, much disordered with wine 3, and addressed me in
a manner that drew from me a sharp rebuke, for which I fancy
he will not easily forgive me. Johnson came to see us the next
morning, and made us a long visit. On Mrs. Garrick's telling
him she was always more at ease with persons who had suffered
the same loss with herself, he said that was a comfort she could
seldom have, considering the superiority of his merit, and the
cordiality of their union. He bore his strong testimony to
the liberality of Garrick 4. He reproved me with pretended
sharpness for reading ' Les Pensees de Pascal V or any of the
Port Royal authors, alleging that as a good Protestant, I ought
to abstain from books written by Catholics. I was beginning to
stand upon my defence, when he took me with both hands, and
with a tear running down his cheeks, * Child,' said he,' with the
most affecting earnestness, ' I am heartily glad that you read
pious books, by whomsoever they may be written 6.' Memoirs^
i. 210.
London, 1781.
We begin now to be a little cheerful at home 7, and to have our
small parties. One such we have just had, and the day and
nine years old, very much in debt.'
Memoir of Viscount Althorp, ed.
1876; Preface, p. 19.
1 Second Earl and Countess Spen
cer. Letters, ii. 65, n. 9, in, n. 2.
2 Garrick died on Jan. 20, 1779.
3 This same spring he went to the
Hon. Miss Monckton's, ' certainly in
extraordinary spirits, and above all
fear or awe,; where Johnson, he writes,
4 kept me as quiet as possible.' Life,
iv. 109.
4 Ante, i. 437.
5 He gave Boswell a copy on Good
Friday, 1779. Ante, i. 87.
6 They were a change from Tom
Jones. Ante, ii. 190.
7 She was living with Mrs. Gar
rick, who called her ' her Chaplain.'
Garrick called her Nine (the Nine
Muses). ' Nine,' he said, * you are
a Sunday Woman' Life, iv. 96.
Of Mrs. Garrick Mrs. Piozzi wrote
in 1 789:—' That woman has lived
a very wise life, regular and steady
in her conduct, attentive to every
word she speaks and every step she
treads, decorous in her manners and
graceful in her person.' Hayward's
Piozzi, ed. 1861, i. 302. 'There is,'
wrote Miss Burney in 1771, 'some
thing so peculiarly graceful in her
motion, and pleasing in her address,
that the most trifling words have
evening
Anecdotes by Hannah More.
evening turned out very pleasant J. Johnson was in* full song,
and I quarrelled with him sadly. I accused him of not having
done justice to the * Allegro/ and ' Penseroso.' He spoke dis
paragingly of both2. I praised Lycidas, which he absolutely
abused 3, adding, if Milton had not written the Paradise Lost,
he would have only ranked among the minor poets 4 : he was
a Phidias that could cut a Colossus out of a rock, but could not
cut heads out of cherry stones 5.
Boswell brought to my mind the whole of a very mirthful
conversation at dear Mrs. Garrick's, and my being made by Sir
William Forbes 6 the umpire in a trial of skill between Garrick
and Boswell, which could most nearly imitate Dr. Johnson's
manner. I remember I gave it for Boswell in familiar con
versation, and for Garrick in reciting poetry 7. Mrs. Boscawen
shone with her usual mild lustre. Memoirs, i. 212.
weight and power, when spoken by
her to oblige and even delight.'
Early Diary of F. Burney, \. ill.
1 It was on April 20 the party was
held. Boswell writes of it, ' I spent
with Johnson one of the happiest
days that I remember to have en
joyed in the whole course of my life.'
Life, iv. 96.
2 It must have been by way of
contradiction, for in the Life of
Milton he says : — ' Every man that
reads them reads them with plea
sure. . . . They are two noble efforts
of imagination.' Works, vii. 121-2.
Dr. Warton, twenty-five years
earlier, spoke of them as poems
' which are now universally known ;
but which by a strange fatality lay
in a sort of obscurity, the private
enjoyment of a few curious readers,
till they were set to admirable music
by Mr. Handel.' Essay on Pope, ed.
1762, i. 39.
3 Of Lycidas Johnson wrote : —
* Surely no man could have fancied
that he read it with pleasure, had he
not known the author.' Works, vii. 1 2 1 .
O
4 Paradise Lost Johnson describes
as * a poem which, considered with
respect to design, may claim the first
place, and with respect to perform
ance the second, among the pro
ductions of the human mind.' Ib.
vii. 125. Macaulay thought 'that
if only the first four books of Para
dise Lost had been preserved Milton
would then have been placed above
Homer.' Trevelyan's Macaulay, ed.
1877, ii. 200.
5 Life, iv. 305.
6 Scott's ' lamented Forbes.' Mar-
mion, canto iv, Introduction. See
Life, v. 24.
7 ' I recollect Garrick's exhibiting
him to me one day, as if saying,
"Davy has some convivial pleasantry
about him, but 'tis a futile fellow " ;
which he uttered perfectly with the
tone and air of Johnson.' Ib. ii.
326.
Charlotte Burney describes how
one day * Garrick took off Dr. John
son most admirably; his see-saw,
his pawing, his very look, and his
voice. Ke took him off in a speech
2 Poor
196 Anecdotes by Hannah More.
London, 1782.
Poor Johnson is in a bad state of health x ; I fear his constitu
tion is broken up : I am quite grieved at it, he will not leave an
abler defender of religion and virtue behind him, and the
following little touch of tenderness which I heard of him last
night from one of the Turk's Head Club 2, endears him to me
exceedingly. There are always a great many candidates ready,
when any vacancy happens in that club, and it requires no small
interest and reputation to get elected 3 ; but upon Garrick's
death, when numberless applications were made to succeed him,
Johnson was deaf to them all ; he said, No, there never could be
found any successor worthy of such a man ; and he insisted
upon it there should be a year's widowhood in the club, before
they thought of a new election 4. In Dr. Johnson some con-
trarieties very harmoniously meet ; if he has too little charity
for the opinions of others, and too little patience with their
y^faults, he has the greatest tenderness for their persons. He told
me the other day, he hated to hear people whine about meta
physical distresses s, when there was so much want and hunger
in the world. I told him I supposed then he never wept at any
tragedy but Jane Shore, who had died for want of a loaf6. He
that has stuck in his gizzard ever Boswell (Life, i. 477), who was evi-
since some friendly person was so dently proud of the name. The
obliging as to repeat it to him : members however cling as much to
" Yes, yes, Davy has some convivial the title of The Club as the head of
pleasantries in him ; but 'tis a futile a Scotch clan clings to 7^he before
Fellow." A little while after he took his name.
him off in one of his own convivial 3 ' A single black-ball excludes a
•pleasantries. " No, Sir, I'm for the candidate.' Ib. iii. 116. Lord Cam-
musick of the ancients, it has been den (the ex-Lord Chancellor) and
corrupted so." ' Early Diary of F. the Bishop of Chester were rejected
Burney, \\. 282, where the editor has on the same day. Ib. iii. 311, n. 2.
an interesting note on 'the musick 4 Garrick died on Jan. 20, 1779.
of the ancients.' The next election was Bishop Ship-
1 The entry was made about the ley's in Nov. 1780. Croker's /far-
middle of April. For his Latin letter well, ed. 1844, ii. 327.
about his health, dated Mails Calen- 5 Ante, i. 252.
disf see Life, iv. 143. 6 'Nor does Rowe much interest
2 ' The Club which existed long or affect the auditor except in Jane
without a name, but at Mr. Garrick's Shore, who is always seen and heard
funeral became distinguished by the with pity.' Works, vii. 416.
title of THE LITERARY CLUB,' writes Charles Burney's little daughter,
called
Anecdotes by Hannah More. 197
called me a saucy girl J, but did not deny the inference. , Memoirs,
i. 249.
London, 1782.
I dined very pleasantly one day last week at the Bishop of
Chester's 2. Johnson was there, and the Bishop was very
desirous to draw him out, as he wished to show him off to some
of the company who had never seen him. He begged me to sit
next him at dinner, and to devote myself to making him talk.
To this end, I consented to talk more than became me, and our
stratagem succeeded. You would have enjoyed seeing him take
me by the hand in the middle of dinner, and repeat with no
small enthusiasm, many passages from the c Fair Penitent Y &c.
I urged him to take a little wine, he replied, ' I can't drink
a little, child, therefore I never touch it. Abstinence is as easy
to me, as temperance would be difficult.' He was very good-
humoured and gay. One of the company happened to say
a word about poetry, ' Hush, hush,' said he, ' it is dangerous to
say a word of poetry before her ; it is talking of the art of war
before Hannibal.' He continued his jokes, and lamented that
I had not married Chatterton, that posterity might have seen
a propagation of poets4. Memoirs, i. 251.
Oxford, June 13, 1782.
Who do you think is my principal Cicerone at Oxford ? Only
Dr. Johnson 5 ! and we do so gallant it about ! You cannot
imagine with what delight he showed me every part of his own
College (Pembroke), nor how rejoiced Henderson 6 looked, to
' being in the front of a stage-box at He told Nichols about this time
a country theatre, and hearing the that ' he had not read one of Rowe's
wretched Jane in vain supplicating plays for thirty years.' Life, iv. 36,72.3.
" a morsel to support her famished 4 Chatterton was born in Bristol
soul," and crying out, " Give me but in 1752, and Hannah More came to
to eat!" said, "Madame, will you live there about 1756. Memoirs, i. 14.
have my OLLANGE." ' H. M ore's 5 He was the guest of Dr. Ed-
Memoirs, iii. 72. wards, Vice-Principal of Jesus
1 She was thirty-seven years old. College. Letters, ii. 257, n. 4.
2 On April 23 or 24. Letters, ii. 6 ' A student of Pembroke College,
250. The Bishop was Beilby Por- celebrated for his wonderful acquire-
teus. Life, iii. 413. ments in Alchymy, Judicial Astro-
3 By Nicholas Rowe ; * one of the logy, and other abstruse and curious
most pleasing tragedies on the stage,' learning.' Life, iv. 298.
Johnson calls it. Works, vii. 408. Richard Sharp told Francis Homer
make
198
Anecdotes by Hannah More.
make one in the party. Dr. Adams, the master of Pembroke,
had contrived a very pretty piece of gallantry. We spent the
day and evening at his house. After dinner Johnson begged to
conduct me to see the College, he would let no one show it me
but himself, — ' This was my room ; this Shenstone's x/ Then
after pointing out all the rooms of the poets who had been of his
college, * In short,' said he, { we were a nest of singing-birds ' 2 —
'that though Henderson had much
quackery before ignorant people to
astonish them with his eccentricities
of erudition, which became so much
a habit that he was generally quackish
in the selection of his subjects, the
manner was full of ability ; and that he
had a very powerful understanding.3
Memoirs of F. Homer, i. 241.
Lamb wrote to Coleridge in June,
1796 : — ' Of the Monody on Hender
son I will here only notice these
lines, as superlatively excellent. That
energetic one, " Shall I not praise
thee, scholar, Christian, friend," like
to that beautiful climax of Shake
speare's " King, Hamlet, Royal Dane,
Father1 ;" " yet memory turns from
little men to thee," "And sported
careless round their fellow child."'
Ainger's Letters of Lamb, i. 14.
De Ouincey tells how ' when Hen
derson was disputing at a dinner
party, his opponent being pressed
by some argument too strong for his
logic or his temper, replied by
throwing a glass of wine in his face ;
upon which Henderson . . . coolly
wiped it, and said, " This, Sir, is
a digression ; now, if you please, for
the argument."' De Quincey's
Works, xii. 192.
The Monody was by Joseph Cottle.
Coleridge in his lines To the
Aiithor of Poems, &c., says: —
'But lo ! your Henderson awakes
the Muse —
His Spirit beckoned from the
Mountain's height,
You left the plain, and soared mid
richer views !
So Nature mourned, when sunk
the First Day's light,
With stars, unseen before, spangling
her robes of night.'
Coleridge's Poems, ed. 1859, p. 53.
1 Johnson's room over the gate
way is in its fabrick much as it was
when Hannah More saw it; Shen
stone's is no longer known.
2 ' From school Shenstone was sent
to Pembroke College in Oxford, a
society which, for half a century, has
been eminent for English poetry and
elegant literature.' Works, viii. 408.
For a list of the eminent men see
Life, i. 75 ; where Boswell also re
cords, that 'being himself a poet,
Johnson was peculiarly happy in
mentioning how many of the sons of
Pembroke were poets ; adding, with
a smile of sportive triumph, " Sir, we
are a nest of singing-birds." '
The College has not been wanting
in scholars in later years. Among
my contemporaries were the late
Dr. Edwin Hatch, the learned theo
logian ; Dr. Edward Moore, the
editor of Dante, and Canon Dixon,
the author of The History of the
Church of England, and of finer
poems than were sung by most
of last-century's nest of singing-
birds.
' I '11 call thee Hamlet,
King, father, royal Dane.'— Act. i. Sc. 4.
Here
Anecdotes by Hannah More.
199
' Here we walked, there we played at cricket V He ran
over with pleasure the history of the juvenile days he passed
there. When we came into the common room2, we spied
a fine large print of Johnson, framed and hung up that very
morning, with this motto : ' And is not Johnson ours, him
self a host! Under which stared you in the face, ' From Miss
Mores Sensibility V This little incident amused us ; — but alas !
Johnson looks very ill indeed — spiritless and wan. However,
he made an effort to be cheerful, and I exerted myself much to
make him so.
We are just setting off to spend a day or two at the Bishop of
Llandaff's 4, near Wallingford. But first I must tell you I am
engaged to dine on my return with the learned Dr. Edwards of
Jesus College, to meet Dr. Johnson, Thomas Warton, and what
ever else is most learned and famous in this University 5.
Memoirs, i. 261.
1 Johnson must have pointed to
a field outside the College precincts,
for within them there was no room
for cricket.
2 In the Common Room, which
then stood in the garden, Johnson,
in the days when it was open to the
undergraduates, ' used to play at
draughts with Phil Jones and Flud-
yer.' Life, ii. 444. By the year
1776, in some of the Colleges, the
students were excluded from the
Common Room. Ib. ii. 443. The
Junior Common Room of Pembroke
College kept its centenary in 1894.
3 'Though purer flames thy hal-
low'd zeal inspire
Than e'er were kindled at the
Muse's fire ;
Thee, mitred Chester1, all the
Nine shall boast ;
And is not Johnson ours ? him
self an host.'
In the Senior Common Room
there now hangs a fine portrait of
Johnson by Reynolds, the gift of
1 'Dr. Beilby Porteus, then Bishop of Chester. See his admirable poem on
" Death." ' Note by //. More.
Hoole
the late Mr. Andrew Spottiswoode.
See Life, iv. 151, n. 2.
4 Shute Barrington. Dr. Watson
who succeeded him, settling on the
banks of Windermere, did not live
any nearer his diocese, and scarcely
ever visited it. After he had been
Bishop twenty-seven years he boasts
of holding ' a confirmation at a place
where no Bishop had ever held a
confirmation before, Merthyr Tid-
vil ' With perfect complacency he
writes : — ' I have spent above twenty
years in this delightful country (West
moreland) ... I have much recovered
my health, entirely preserved my in
dependence, set an example of a
spirited husbandry to the country,
and honourably provided for my
family.' Life of Bishop Watson, i.
389 ; ii. 367-
5 For the sudden rise this week of
the ' battels ' of many of the Fellows
and Scholars of Jesus College see
Letters, ii. 261, n. I.
200 Anecdotes by Hannah More.
London, March 29, 1783.
Hoole has just sent me his preface to his translation of
Ariosto, which is coming out ; an expensive present ; since
I can now do no less than subscribe for the whole work, and
a guinea and a half for a translation of a book from the original
is dearish z. Saturday I went to Mrs. Reynolds's to meet Sir
Joshua and Dr. Johnson ; the latter is vastly recovered. Our
conversation ran very much upon religious opinions, chiefly
those of the Roman Catholics. He took the part of the Jesuits,
and I declared myself a Jansenist. He was very angry because
I quoted Boileau's bon mot upon the Jesuits, that they had
lengthened the creed and shortened the decalogue ; but I con
tinued sturdily to vindicate my old friends of the Port Royal.
On Tuesday I was at Mrs. Vesey's assembly, which was too full
to be very pleasant. She dearly loves company ; and as she is
connected with almost every thing that is great in the good
sense of the word, she is always sure to have too much.
I inquired after the Shipleys, who had promised to meet us
there, and was told they had just sent an excuse ; for that Anna
Maria and Sir William 2 were at that moment in the act of
marrying. They will be now completely banished, but as they
will be banished together, they do not think it a hardship. May
God bless them, and may his stupendous learning be sanctified !
I went and sat the other morning with Dr. Johnson, who is still
far from well. Our conversation was very interesting, but so
1 Jeremy Bentham says that even of those with whom he asso-
' Hoole got money by plays and elated intimately. . . . The opinions
translations, which he got people to he expressed of people depended
subscribe for. He even asked me very much upon their personal rela-
for subscriptions, though he lived in tions to himself.' Macvey Napier
style — asked me who lived in beg- Corres. p. 441.
gary !' Bentham's Works, x. 184. La Rochefoucauld says (Maximes,
Bentham's characters must be re- No. 88) : — ' L'amour-propre nous
ceived with caution. Mill wrote augmente ou nous diminue les bonnes
on Oct. 14, 1843, about Bowring's qualites de nos amis, a proportion de
Life of Bentham : — * Mr. Bentham's la satisfaction que nous avons d'eux ;
best friends well knew — I have heard et nous jugeons de leur me"rite par la
some of those who were most at- maniere dont ils vivent avec nous.'
tached to him lament — his entire 2 Sir William Jones. Life, iv.
incapacity to estimate the characters 75, n. 3.
many
Anecdotes by Hannah More. 201
many people came in, that I began to feel foolish, and soon
I sneaked off. He has written some very pretty verses on his
friend Levett *, which he gave me, and which I will send you
when I can. He was all kindness to me. Memoirs, i. 278.
London, May 5, 1783.
Saturday we had a dinner at home, Mrs. Carter, Miss Hamilton,
the Kennicotts2, and Dr. Johnson. Poor Johnson exerted him
self exceedingly ; but he was very ill and looked so dreadfully,
that it quite grieved me 3. He is more mild and complacent
than he used to be. His sickness seems to have softened his
Vmind, without having at all weakened it. I was struck with the
radiance of this setting sun. We had but a small party of
such of his friends as we knew would be most agreeable to him,
and as we were all very attentive, and paid him the homage
he both expects and deserves, he was very communicative, and
of course instructive and delightful in the highest degree.
Memoirs, i. 280.
April, 1784.
I had a very civil note 4 from Johnson about a week since ; it
was written in good spirits ; and as it was a volunteer, and not
an answer, it looks as if he were really better. He tells me he
longs to see me, to praise the Bas Bleu 5 as much as envy can
praise ; — there's for you !
1 Life, iv. 137. in 1825, mentioning the death of Sir
2 Dr. Kennicott was a Canon of W. W. Pepys says :—' Our acquaint-
Christ Church and author of the ance began nearly fifty years ago ;
Collations. Life, ii. 128 ; Letters, ii. he was the Ltzlius in my little poem
77> n> 2- The Bas Bleu. As he was the chief
3 He had just gone through a ornament, so he was the last sur-
three days' course of violent physick- vivor of the select society which gave
ing. Letters, ii. 294. birth to that trifle.' Memoirs, iv.
4 It has not been published. 238.
5 On April 19 he wrote to Mrs. 'General Paoli described a Blue-
Thrale : — ' Miss Moore [sic] has stocking meeting very well : — Here,
written a poem called Le Bas Bleu ; four or five old ladies talking formally,
which is in my opinion a very great and a priest (Dr. Barnard, Provost
performance. It wanders about in of Eton), with a wig like the globe,
manuscript.' Letters, ii. 390. See sitting in the middle, as if he were
ib. n. 4 for some extracts from it, confessing them/ Rogers's Bos-
and Life, iv. 108. Hannah More, ivelliana, p. 321.
Did
202
Anecdotes by Hannah More.
Did I tell you I went to see Dr. Johnson ? Miss Monckton x
carried me, and we paid him a very long visit. He received me
with the greatest kindness and affection, and as to the Bas Bleu,
all the flattery I ever received from every body together would
not make up his sum. He said, but I seriously insist you do
not tell any body, for I am ashamed of writing it even to you ; —
he said there was no name in poetry that might not be glad to
own it 2. You cannot imagine how I stared ; all this from John
son, that parsimonious praiser ! I told him I was delighted at
his approbation ; he answered quite characteristically, * And so
you may, for I give you the opinion of a man who does not
rate his judgment in these things very low, I can tell you.'
Memoirs, i. 319.
1784.
My appointment at Oxford was to flirt with Dr. Johnson, but
he was a recreant knight, and had deserted 3. He had been for
a fortnight at the house of my friend Dr. Adams, the head of
Pembroke, with Mr. Boswell ; but the latter being obliged to
go to town, Johnson was not thought well enough to remain
behind, and afterwards to travel by himself; so that he left my
friend's house the very day I got thither, though they told me
he did me the honour to be very angry and out of humour, that
I did not come so soon as I had promised. I am grieved to find
that his mind is still a prey to melancholy, and that the fear of
death operates on him to the destruction of his peace. It is
grievous — it is unaccountable ! He who has the Christian hope
upon the best foundation ; whose faith is strong, whose morals
are irreproachable 4 ! But I am willing to ascribe it to bad
nerves, and bodily disease. Memoirs, i. 330.
even what he likes, extravagantly.'
3 He went to Oxford on June 3,
1784, and left it on June 19. Life,
iv. 283, 311.
4 ' MRS. ADAMS. " You seem, Sir,
to forget the merits of our Redeemer."
JOHNSON. " Madam, I do not for
get the merits of my Redeemer ; but
my Redeemer has said that he will
set some on his right hand and some
on his left." — He was in gloomy
Poor
1 Life, iv. 108, n. 4.
2 Johnson said to Mrs. Thrale : —
' I know nobody who blasts by praise
as you do; for whenever there is
exaggerated praise everybody is set
against a character.' Ib. iv. 81. See
also ib. iii. 225, where Mrs. Thrale
said : — ' I do not know for cer
tain what will please Dr. Johnson ;
but I know for certain that it will
displease him to praise anything,
Anecdotes by Hannah More. 203
Hampton, December, 1784.
Poor dear Johnson ! he is past all hope. The dropsy has
brought him to the point of death ; his legs are scarified : but
nothing will do. I have, however, the comfort to hear that his
dread of dying is in a great measure subdued ; and now he
says ' the bitterness of death is past V He sent the other day
for Sir Joshua ; and after much serious conversation told him
he had three favours to beg of him, and he hoped he would not
refuse a dying friend, be they what they would. Sir Joshua
promised. The first was that he would never paint on a Sunday ;
the second that he would forgive him thirty pounds that he had
lent him, as he wanted to leave them to a distressed family; the
third was that he would read the bible whenever he had an
opportunity ; and that he would never omit it on a Sunday.
There was no difficulty but upon the first point ; but at length
Sir Joshua promised to gratify him in all 2. How delighted
should I be to hear the dying discourse of this great and good
man, especially now that faith has subdued his fears. I wish
I could see him.
[As the very interesting particulars contained in the following
letter, found among Mrs. H. More's papers, may not be generally
known, we shall perhaps be excused for interrupting the series of
her letters by its insertion. — Note by Roberts.]
MY DEAR FRIEND,
I ought to apologize for delaying so long to gratify your wishes
and fulfil my promise, by committing to paper a conversation
agitation, and said, " I '11 have no affecting. I never saw anything so
more on 't." ' Life, iv. 300. meek and so resigned. But it is
Mrs. Adams did not outlive him a heavy blow at almost eighty.'
many months. Early in the summer x * Surely the bitterness of death
of 1785 Hannah More records (Me- is past.' I Sam. xv. 32.
moirs, i. 404) : — * The wife of Dr. ' The Doctor, from the time that
Adams is dead, and his friends pre- he was certain his death was near,
vailed on him to set out for London, appeared to be perfectly resigned.'
to be out of the way during the last Life, iv. 417 ; ante, i. 448 ; ii. 127.
sad ceremonies ; so he came to the 2 Boswell says that ' Sir Joshua
hotel next to us, in order for me to readily acquiesced.' Life, iv. 414.
devote myself to him as much as The first promise he did not keep,
possible. Our first meeting was very Ib. n. i. See ante, ii. 5.
which
204 Anecdotes by Hannah More.
which I had with the late Rev. Mr. Storry, of Colchester, re
specting Dr. Johnson. I will now however proceed at once
to record, to the best of my recollection, the substance of our
discourse.
We were riding together near Colchester, when I asked
Mr. Storry whether he had ever heard that Dr. Johnson ex
pressed great dissatisfaction with himself on the approach of
death, and that in reply to friends, who, in order to comfort him,
spoke of his writings in defence of virtue and religion, he had
said, ' admitting all you urge to be true, how can I tell when
I have done enough *.'
Mr. S. assured me that what I had just mentioned was perfectly
correct ; and then added the following interesting particulars.
Dr. Johnson, said he, did feel as you describe, and was not to
be comforted by the ordinary topics of consolation which were
addressed to him. In consequence he desired to see a clergyman,
and particularly described the views and character of the person
whom he wished to consult. After some consideration a Mr.
Winstanley was named, and the Dr. requested Sir John Hawkins
to write a note in his name, requesting Mr. W.'s attendance as
a minister 2.
Mr. W., who was in a very weak state of health, was quite
overpowered on receiving the note, and felt appalled by the very
thought of encountering the talents and learning of Dr. Johnson.
In his embarrassment he went to his friend Colonel Pownall, and
told him what had happened, asking, at the same time, for his
advice how to act. The Colonel, who was a pious man, urged
him immediately to follow what appeared to be a remarkable
leading of providence, and for the time argued his friend out of
his nervous apprehension : but after he had left Colonel Pownall,
Mr. W.'s fears returned in so great a degree as to prevail upon
him to abandon the thought of a personal interview with the Dr.
He determined in consequence to write him a letter : that letter
I think Mr. Storry said he had seen, — at least a copy of it, and
part of it he repeated to me as follows : —
Sir — I beg to acknowledge the honour of your note, and am
^ ii. 156. 2 Hawkins has no mention of this.
very
Anecdotes by Hannah More. 205
very sorry that the state of my health prevents my compliance
with your request ; but my nerves are so shattered that I feel
as if I should be quite confounded by your presence, and instead
of promoting, should only injure the cause in which you desire
my aid. Permit me therefore to write what I should wish to
say were I present. I can easily conceive what would be the
subjects of your inquiry. I can conceive that the views of your
self have changed with your condition, and that on the near
approach of death, what you once considered mere peccadillos
have risen into mountains of guilt, while your best actions have
dwindled into nothing. On whichever side you look you see
only positive transgressions or defective obedience ; and hence,
in self-despair, are eagerly inquiring 'What shall I do to be
saved ? ' I say to you, in the language of the Baptist, ' Behold
the Lamb of God ! ' &c. &c.
When Sir John Hawkins came to this part of Mr. W.'s letter,
the Dr. interrupted him, anxiously asking, ' Does he say so ?
Read it again ! Sir John.' Sir John complied : upon which the
Dr. said, * I must see that man ; write again to him.' A second
note was accordingly sent: but even this repeated solicitation
could not prevail over Mr. Winstanley's fears. He was led,
however, by it to write again to the Doctor, renewing and en
larging upon the subject of his first letter ; and these communi
cations, together with the conversation of the late Mr. Latrobe z,
who was a particular friend of Dr. Johnson, appear to have been
blessed by God in bringing this great man to the renunciation of
self, and a simple reliance on Jesus as his Saviour, thus also
communicating to him that peace which he had found the world
could not give, and which when the world was fading from his
view, was to fill the void, and dissipate the gloom, even of the
valley of the shadow of death. Memoirs, i. 376.
H. MORE to her sister.
Hampton2, 1785.
Mr. Pepys wrote me a very kind letter on the death of Johnson,
thinking I should be impatient to hear something relating to his
last hours. Dr. Brocklesby, his physician, was with him; he
1 A Moravian. Life, iv. 410. 2 At Mrs. Garrick's house.
said
206
Anecdotes by Hannah More.
said to him a little before he died, Doctor, you are a worthy
man, and my friend, but I am afraid you are not a Christian !
what can I do better for you than offer up in your presence
a prayer to the great God that you may become a Christian in
my sense of the word. Instantly he fell on his knees, and put
up a fervent prayer ; when he got up he caught hold of his hand
with great earnestness, and cried, Doctor, you do not say Amen.
The Doctor looked foolishly, but after a pause, cried, Amen!
Johnson said, My dear doctor, believe a dying man, there is no
salvation but in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God ; go home,
write down my prayer, and every word I have said, and bring it
me to-morrow. Brocklesby did so J. ...
No action of his life became him like the leaving it. His death
makes a kind of era in literature 2 ; piety and goodness will not
easily find a more able defender, and it is delightful to see him
set, as it were, his dying seal to the professions of his life, and to
the truth of Christianity. Memoirs, i. 392.
Adelphi, 1785.
Boswell tells me he is printing anecdotes of Johnson, not his
life, but, as he has the vanity to call it, \\ispyramid3. I besought
his tenderness for our virtuous and most revered departed friend,
and begged he would mitigate some of his asperities. He said,
roughly, ' He would not cut off his claws, nor make a tiger a cat,
to please anybody4.' It will, I doubt not, be a very amusing
book, but I hope not an indiscreet one ; he has great enthusiasm,
and some fire 5. Memoirs, i. 403.
1 Life, \v. 414, 416 ; ante, ii. 146,
152.
2 ' He has made a chasm, which
not only nothing can fill up, but
which nothing has a tendency to fill
up.' Life, iv. 420.
3 'What Boswell was printing in
1785 was his Journal of a Tour to
the Hebrides.
4 Life, i. 30.
5 The following is endorsed on
a letter addressed by Boswell to
Lord Buchan on Jan. 5, 1767 : —
1 Boswell was my relative by his
mother. ... In consequence of a letter
he wrote to me I desired him to call
at Mr. Pitt's, and took care to be
with him when he was introduced.
. . . Boswell came in the Corsican
dress and presented a letter from
Paoli. Lord Chatham smiled, but
received him very graciously in his
pompous manner. Boswell had
genius, but wanted ballast to coun
teract his whim. He preferred being
a showman to keeping a shop of his
own.' Buchan MSS. quoted in
Croker's Boswell, x. 122.
I remember
Anecdotes by Hannah More. 207
I remember that my dear old Dr. Johnson once asked me,
'What was the greatest compliment you could pay to an
author ? ' I replied, * To quote him V * Thou art right, my
child/ said he. Memoirs, iv. 20.
Dr. Johnson once said to me : ' Never mind whether they
praise or abuse your writings ; anything is tolerable, except
oblivion2.' Memoirs, ii. 169.
' I have lost so many of my contemporaries within the last
year [1824] that I am ready to ask with Dr. Johnson, " where is
the world into which I was born ? " Memoirs, iv. 203.
1829 [February or March}.
Joy, joy, joy to you, to me ! Joy to the individual victorious
Protestant ! Joy to the great Protestant cause ! That dear valu
able Sir T. Acland brought the first news of a great majority 3 ;
and though I could scarcely doubt of our success, yet I applied
the words once used to me by my old friend, Dr. Johnson, ' My
dear, I must always doubt of that which has not yet happened.'
Memoirs, iv. 297.
1 Perhaps she got this from The a dissenting meeting-house at Bath.'
Tatler, No. 205, where it is said of The same orthodox Review quotes
Dr. South : — ' The best way to praise (1802, p. 429) from a scurrilous Life
this author is to quote him.' of Hannah More a foul attack on
2 Life, iii. 375 ; v. 273. her, in which it is implied that at
In 1803 writing of the attacks the expense of her chastity * she pur-
made on her, including ' Three years' chased an annuity of ^200 at a very
monthly attack from the Anti- easy rate' [the italics are in the
Jacobin] she says: — 'I have to original]. The canting reviewer adds
lament that through my want of his that ' such loose imputations disgrace
[Baxter's] faith and piety, they had the biographer.'
nearly destroyed my life. In one 3 The news was the defeat of Peel
thing only I had the advantage, at the Oxford University election,
I never once replied to my calum- when the Duke of Wellington and he
niators.' Memoirs •, iii. 203. To judge brought in their Catholic Relief Bill,
by the index of the Anti-Jacobin the ' The Convocation,' wrote Greville
attacks were rather yearly than on Feb. 27, 'presents a most dis-
monthly. In the volume for 1802, graceful scene of riot and uproar.'
p. 429, she is charged ' with having C. C. Greville's Journals, ed. 1874,
received the Sacrament from the 1st Ser. i. 177.
hands of Mr. Jay, the pastor of
ANECDOTES AND REMARKS
BY BISHOP PERCY
[THE following anecdotes and remarks are taken from the
third edition of Dr. Robert Anderson's Life of Johnson,
published in 1815. They had been recorded by Percy, in 1805,
in an interleaved copy of the second edition. A few of his
entries are not worth reprinting ; others I have already in
corporated as notes, and so do not include here.]
AT Stourbridge Johnson's genius was so distinguished that,
although little better than a school-boy, he was admitted into
the best company of the place, and had no common attention
paid to his conversation ; of which remarkable instances were
long remembered there1. He had met even with George,
afterwards Lord Lyttleton ; with whom, having some colloquial
disputes, he is supposed to have conceived that prejudice which
so improperly influenced him in the Life of that worthy noble
man2. But this could scarcely have happened when he was
a boy of fifteen, and, therefore, it is probable he occasionally
1 Bridgenofth, Percy's birthplace,
is only a few miles from Stourbridge.
He was Johnson's junior by nineteen
years.
2 Life, iv. 57. Ante, i. 257.
Percy, who was chaplain to the
King, devoted to the Duke of
Northumberland, and whose wife
had been nurse to Prince Edward
(ante, ii. 64), was naturally shocked
at Johnson's ridicule of a worthy
nobleman but a poor writer. John
son disliked moreover 'the most
vulgar Whiggism' of Lyttelton's
History of Henry II. Life, ii. 221.
Hume wrote to Adam Smith on July
14, 1767 : — ' Have you read Lord
Lyttelton ? Do you not admire his
Whiggery and his Piety; Qualities
so useful both for this world and the
next?' MSS. Royal Society of
Edinburgh.
visited
Anecdotes and Remarks by Bishop Percy. 209
visited Stourbridge, during his residence at Birmingham, before
he removed to London x. (Pages 20, 66.)
Johnson's countenance was not so harsh and rugged as has
been misrepresented, and no otherwise disfigured by the King's
Evil than its having a scar under one of his jaws, where some
humour had been opened, but afterwards healed. And this
being only a simple scar, attended with no discoloration, excited
no disgust 2. (Page 15.)
His countenance, when in a good humour, was not disagree
able. His face clear, his complexion good, and his features
not ill-formed, many ladies have thought they might not be
unattractive when he was young3. Much misrepresentation
has prevailed on this subject among such as did not personally
know him. (Page 49.)
That he had some whimsical peculiarities of the nature
described [by Boswell, Life, i. 484], is certainly true ; but there
is no reason to believe they proceeded from any superstitious
motives, wherein religion was concerned ; they are rather to be
ascribed to his ' mental distempers.' (Page 487.)
If Johnson appeared a little unwieldy, it was owing to the
defect of his sight, and not from corpulency. (Page 468.)
Johnson was so extremely short-sighted4, that he had no
1 That this is not likely is shown see so well as I do." I wondered at
by a passage in one of his Letters Dr. Percy's venturing thus. Dr.
(1.177) where speaking of a proposed Johnson said nothing at the time;
visit to Mr. Lyttelton at Hagley, but inflammable particles were col-
near Stourbridge, he says : — ' I lecting for a cloud to burst. In a
should have had the opportunity . . . little while Dr. Percy said something
of recalling the images of sixteen more in disparagement of Pennant,
and reviewing my conversations with JOHNSON (pointedly). " This is the
poor Ford.' See Life, i. 49. He resentment of a narrow mind, be
seems to have met Lyttelton at Mr. cause he did not find every thing in
Fitzherbert's. Ante, i. 257. Northumberland." PERCY (feeling
2 Life, i. 94. the stroke). " Sir, you may be as
3 Ante, i. 344. rude as you please." JOHNSON.
4 ' PERCY. " But, my good friend, " Hold, Sir ! Don't talk of rudeness ;
you are short-sighted, and do not remember, Sir, you told me (puffing
VOL. II. p conception
210 Anecdotes and Remarks
conception of rural beauties ; and, therefore, it is not to be
wondered, that he should prefer the conversation of the metro
polis to the silent groves and views of Greenwich * ; which,
however delightful, he could not see. In his Tour through the
Highlands of Scotland, he has somewhere observed, that one
mountain was like another 2 ; so utterly unconscious was he of
the wonderful variety of sublime and beautiful scenes those
mountains exhibited. The writer of this remark was once
present when the case of a gentleman was mentioned, who,
having with great taste and skill formed the lawns and plan
tations about his house into most beautiful landscapes, to
complete one part of the scenery, was obliged to apply for
leave to a neighbour with whom he was not upon cordial
terms 3 ; when Johnson made the following remark, which at
once shews what ideas he had of landscape improvement, and
how happily he applied the most common incidents to moral
instruction. * See how inordinate desires enslave man ! No
desire can be more innocent than to have a pretty garden, yet,
indulged to excess, it has made this poor man submit to beg
a favour of his enemy.' (Page 520.)
This [the statement that 'when Johnson did eat it was
voraciously '] is extremely exaggerated. He ate heartily, having
a good appetite, but not with the voraciousness described by
hard with passion struggling for a men, I answered, " Yes, Sir ; but
vent) I was short-sighted. We have not equal to Fleet-street." JOHN-
done with civility. We are to be as SON. " You are right, Sir." ' Ib. i.
rude as we please." PERCY. " Upon 461.
my honour, Sir, I did not mean to 2 'The hills exhibit very little
be uncivil." JOHNSON. " I cannot variety, being almost wholly covered
say so, Sir ; for I did mean to be with dark heath, and even that seems
uncivil, thinking you had been un- to be checked in its growth.' Works,
civil." ' Life, iii. 273. ix. 35. ' The Highlands are very
1 * We walked in the evening in uniform, for there is little variety
Greenwich Park. He asked me, in universal barrenness.' Letters, i.
I suppose, byway of trying my dis- 250.
position, " Is not this very fine ? " 3 Shenstone perhaps is meant,
Having no exquisite relish of the who ' was not upon cordial terms J
beauties of Nature, and being more with his neighbours the Lytteltons.
delighted with the busy hum of Works, viii. 410; antet ii. 3.
Mr.
by Bishop Percy. 211
Mr. Boswell x ; all whose extravagant accounts must be read
with caution and abatement. (Page 471.)
There was no great cordiality between Garrick and Johnson;
and as the latter kept him much in awe when present, Garrick,
when his back was turned, repaid the restraint with ridicule
of him and his dulcinea, which should be read with great
abatement ; for, though Garrick, at the moment, to indulge
a spirit of drollery, and to entertain the company, gave distorted
caricatures of Mrs. Johnson and her spouse, it would certainly
have shocked him, had he known that these sportive distor
tions were to be handed down to posterity as faithful pictures.
By his caricature mimickry he could turn the most respect
able characters and unaffected manners into ridicule2. (Pages
50, 9i.)
\,
The extraordinary prejudice and dislike of Swift, manifested
on all occasions by Johnson, whose political opinions coincided
exactly with his 3, has been difficult to account for ; and is there
fore attributed to his failing in getting a degree, which Swift
might not chuse to solicit, for a reason given below. The real
cause is believed to be as follows : The Rev. Dr. Madden, who
distinguished himself so laudably by giving premiums to the
young students of Dublin College, for which he had raised
a fund by applying for contributions to the nobility and gentry
of Ireland4, had solicited the same from Swift, when he was
1 'Everything about his character man behind his back.' Early Diary
and manners was forcible and violent ; of Frances Burney, ii. 283.
there never was any moderation; 3 Swift, in 1716, described himself
many a day did he fast, many a year as having been ' always a Whig in
did he refrain from wine; but when politicks.' Works, ed. 1803, xvi. 156.
he did eat, it was voraciously; when 4 Dr. Madan, in 1730, 'submitted
he did drink wine, it was copiously.' to the University of Dublin a scheme
Life, iv. 72. for the encouragment of learning by
2 He came one day with Becket the establishment of premiums, for
the bookseller to Dr. Burney's house. which he proposed to raise a fund
' Becket walked on a little before amounting at the lowest to ^250 per
Garrick, and he [Garrick] was im- annum.' In 1732 they were first
pudent enough to take him off to his granted. Some fourteen years later
face, I was going to say, but to do Edmund Burke was awarded a pre-
him justice he did it like a gentle- mium. Diet. Nat. Biog. xxxv. 296.
P 2 sinking
2i2 Anecdotes and Remarks
sinking into that morbid idiocy which only terminated with
his life, and was saving every shilling to found his hospital
for lunatics J ; but his application was refused with so little
delicacy, as left in Dr. Madden a rooted dislike to Swift's
character, which he communicated to Johnson, whose friendship
he gained on the following occasion: Dr. Madden wished to
address some person of high rank, in prose or verse ; and,
desirous of having his composition examined and corrected by
some writer of superior talents, had been recommended to
Johnson, who was at that time in extreme indigence ; and
having finished his task, would probably have thought himself
well rewarded with a guinea or two, when, to his great surprise,
Dr. Madden generously slipped ten guineas into his hand2.
This made such an impression on Johnson, as led him to adopt
every opinion of Dr. Madden, and to resent, as warmly as
himself, Swift's rough refusal of the contribution ; after which
the latter could not decently request any favour from the
University of Dublin. (Page 81.)
[' I am to mention (writes Bos well, Life, iv. 395) that Johnson's
conduct, after he came to London and associated with Savage,
was not so strictly virtuous in one respect as when he was
a younger man. ... He owned to many of his friends that he
J. W. Stubbs's Hist. Univ. Dublin, ' He gave the little wealth he had
pp. 198, 200. In 1740 Madan set To build a house for fools and mad ;
afoot a premium scheme for the en- And showed by one satiric touch
couragement of inventions in Ireland. No nation wanted it so much.'
Gentleman's Magazine, 1740, p. 94 ; Ib. xi. 255.
Life, i. 318. It was in 1745 that he 2 'When Dr. Madden came to
published his Boulter's Monument. London, he submitted that work
Ib. It was in 1739 that Swift was [Boulter's Monument} to my casti-
asked to get Johnson the degree of gation ; and I remember I blotted
Master of Arts of Dublin. Percy a great many lines, and might have
makes a strange confusion in his blotted many more, without making
'real cause.' the poem worse. However, the
1 Swift left the bulk of his pro- Doctor was very thankful, and very
perty to found a lunatic asylum in generous, for he gave me ten guineas,
Dublin. Works, ed. 1803, xxiv. 236. which was to me at that time a great
He ended his Verses on the Death of sum' Life, i. 318. The work was
Dr. Swift, written fourteen years ' A Panegyrical Poem' in memory of
before his end, by saying :— Archbishop Boulter. See/^r/, p. 267.
used
by Bishop Percy. 213
used to take women of the town to taverns and hear them
relate their history.]
This seems to have been suggested by Mr. Boswell, to account
for Johnson's religious terrors on the approach of death ; as
if they proceeded from his having been led by Savage to vicious
indulgences with the women of the town, in his nocturnal
rambles1. This, if true, Johnson was not likely to have con
fessed to Mr. Boswell, and therefore must be received as a pure
invention of his own. But if Johnson ever conversed with those
unfortunate females, it is believed to have been in order to
reclaim them from their dissolute life, by moral and religious
impressions ; for to one of his friends he once related a con
versation of that sort which he had with a young female in the
street, and that asking her what she thought she was made
for, 'she supposed to please the gentlemen2.' His friend
intimating his surprise, that he should have had communica
tions with street-walkers, implying a suspicion that they were
not of a moral tendency, Johnson expressed the highest
indignation that any other motive could ever be suspected.
(Page 90.)
The account of the manner in which Johnson compiled his
Dictionary, as given by Mr. Boswell, is confused and erroneous3;
and a moment's reflection will convince every person of judg
ment could not be correct ; for, to write down an alphabetical
1 Life, i. 164. in the Rambler' [Nos. 170 and 171].
2 Hawkins, who tells this story Prior's Malone, p. 161.
(p. 321), says: — ''It is too well 3 'The words, partly taken from
attested for me to omit it? Malorie other dictionaries, and partly sup-
says that ' Baretti used sometimes plied by himself, having been first
to walk with Johnson through the written down with spaces left be-
streets at night, and occasionally tween them, he delivered in writing
entered into conversation with the their etymologies, definitions, and
unfortunate women who frequent significations. The authorities were
them, for the sake of hearing their copied from the books themselves, in
stories. It was from a history of which he had marked the passages
one of these, which a girl told under with a black-lead pencil, the traces
a tree in the King's Bench Walk in of which could easily be effaced.'
the Temple to Baretti and Johnson, Life, i. 188. See ante, ii. 95.
that he formed the story of Misella
arrangement
214 Anecdotes and Remarks
arrangement of all the words in the English language, and then
hunt through the whole compass of English literature for all their
different significations, would have taken the whole life of any
individual ; but Johnson, who, among other peculiarities of his
character, excelled most men in contriving the best means to
accomplish any end, devised the following mode for completing
his Dictionary, as he himself expressly described to the writer
of this account. He began his task by devoting his first care
to a diligent perusal of all such English writers as were most
correct in their language z, and under every sentence which he
meant to quote, he drew a line, and noted in the margin the
first letter of the word under which it was to occur. He then
delivered these books to his clerks, who transcribed each sentence
on a separate slip of paper, and arranged the same under the
word referred to. By these means he collected the several
words and their different significations ; and when the whole
arrangement was alphabetically formed, he gave the definitions
of their meanings, and collected their etymologies from Skinner,
Junius2, and other writers on the subject. In completing his
alphabetical arrangement, he, no doubt, would recur to former
dictionaries 3, to see if any words had escaped him ; but this,
which Mr. Boswell makes the first step in the business, was in
reality the last ; and it was doubtless to this happy arrangement
that Johnson effected in a few years what employed the foreign
academies nearly half a century.
Mr. Boswell objects to the title of Rambler, which he says
was ill-suited to a series of grave and moral discourses, and is
translated into Italian // Vagabonds, as also because the same
1 It was in this work that he ac- in Cambridge has recorded that Bent-
quired a great part of his extra- ley said he thought himself likely to
ordinary knowledge of books. ' Dr. live to fourscore, an age long enough
Adam Smith (writes Boswell) once to read everything which was worth
observed to me that "Johnson knew reading.' Monk's Bentley, ii. 412.
more books than any man alive." ' 2 For Francis Junius and Stephen
Life, i. 71. 'I never knew a man Skinner see Life, i. 186.
who studied hard (said Johnson). 3 * An interleaved copy of Bailey's
I conclude, indeed, from the effects, dictionary in folio he made the repo-
that some men have studied hard, as sitory of the several articles.' Haw-
Bentley and Clarke.' Ib. ' Tradition kins, p. 175.
title
by Bishop Percy. 215
title was afterwards given to a licentious magazine1. These
are curious reasons. But in the first place, Mr. Boswell assumes,
that Johnson intended only to write a series of papers on ' grave
and moral' subjects; whereas, on the contrary, he meant this
periodical paper should be open for the reception of every
subject, serious or sprightly, solemn or familiar, moral or
amusing ; and therefore endeavoured to find a title as general
and unconfined as possible2. He acknowledged, that 'The
Spectator' was the most happily chosen of all others, and
' The Tatler ' the next to it ; and after long consideration how
to fix a third title, equally capacious and suited to his purpose,
he suddenly thought upon The Rambler •, and it would be difficult
to find any other that so exactly coincided with the motto he
has adopted in the title-page.
' Quo me cunque rapit tempestas deferor hospes V
(Page 142.)
Johnson's manner of composing has not been rightly under
stood. He was so extremely short-sighted, from the defect in
his eyes, that writing was inconvenient to him ; for whenever
he wrote, he was obliged to hold the paper close to his face.
He, therefore, never composed what we call a foul draft on
paper of any thing he published, but used to revolve the subject
in his mind, and turn and form every period, till he had brought
the whole to the highest correctness and the most perfect
1 ' Johnson was, I think, not very peruse them, whose passions left
happy in the choice of his title, The them leisure for abstracted truth,
Rambler, which certainly is not suited and whom virtue could please by its
to a series of grave and moral dis- naked dignity.'
courses ; which the Italians have 3 The motto was,
literally, but ludicrously translated f Nullius addictus jurare in verba
by // Vagabondo ; and which has magistri,
been lately assumed as the denomi- Qu° me cunque rapit tempestas
nation of a vehicle of licentious tales, deferor hospes.'
The Rambler's Magazine' Life, i. Horace, Epis. i. I. 14.
202. For // Vagabondo see ib. iii. ' Sworn to no master, of no sect
411. am I :
2 In his last Rambler he says : — As drives the storm, at any door
' I have never complied with tern- I knock.'
porary curiosity, nor enabled my Percy seems to think that Johnson
readers to discuss the topic of the chose his motto first and then cast
day. . . . They only were expected to about for a title to suit it.
arrangement
2l6
Anecdotes and Remarks
arrangement x. Then his uncommonly retentive memory enabled
him to deliver a whole essay, properly finished, whenever it was
called for. The writer of this note has often heard him humming
and forming periods, in low whispers to himself, when shallow
observers thought he was muttering prayers, &c. 2 But Johnson
is well known to have represented his own practice, in the
following passage, in his Life of Pope 3. ' Of composition there
are different methods. Some employ at once memory and
invention ; and, with little intermediate use of the pen, form
and polish large masses by continued meditation, and write
their productions only when, in their own opinion, they have
completed them.' (Page 149.)
Johnson's invectives against Scotland, in common conver
sation, were more in pleasantry and sport than real and
malignant ; for no man was more visited by natives of that
country, nor were there any for whom he had a greater
esteem4. It was to Dr. Grainger5, a Scottish physician, that
the writer of this note owed his first acquaintance with Johnson,
in 1756. (Page 285.)
1 'A certain apprehension arising
from novelty made him write his
first exercise at College twice over;
but he never took that trouble with
any other composition ; and we shall
see that his most excellent works
were struck off at a heat, with
rapid exertion.' Life, i. 71.
It is clear that he did not always,
as Percy says, ' turn and form every
period' before he began to write.
Much of his poetry was thus written
(Ib. \. 192 ; ii. 15), .but not all. Thus
he said, ' I allow, you may have
pleasure from writing, after it is over,
if you have written well ; but you
don't go willingly to it again. I
know when I have been writing
verses, I have run my finger down
the margin, to see how many I had
made, and how few I had to make.'
Ib. iv. 219. This shows that he was
composing at the desk. From his
account of the way his Ramblers were
written it is clear that he often com
posed as he wrote. Ib. iii. 42, n. 2.
2 Boswell apparently is aimed at
as one of ' the shallow observers.'
He says : — ' Talking to himself was
one of his singularities ever since
I knew him. I was certain that he
was frequently uttering pious ejacu
lations, for fragments of the Lord's
Prayer have been distinctly over
heard.' Ib. i. 483, v. 307. See also
post, p. 273. Percy must have been
offended by Bos well's publication of
the ' friendly scheme ' mentioned in
the Life, iii. 276. See ib. iii. 278,
n. i.
3 Works, viii. 321.
4 Life, ii. 121, 306; ante, i. 264, n.
5 The author of the Sugar-Cane
(Life, ii. 454) practised as a medical
man ; perhaps he is meant. He
knew Percy. Letters, ii. 70, n. 3.
This
by Bishop Percy. 217
This summer [1764] Johnson paid a visit to Dr. Percy1, at his
vicarage house in Easton-Mauduit, near Wellingborough, in
Northamptonshire, and spent parts of the months of June, July,
and August with him, accompanied by his friend Miss Williams,
whom Mrs. Percy found a very agreeable companion 2. As poor
Miss Williams, whose history is so connected with that of
Johnson, has not had common justice dorie her by his biogra
phers3, it may be proper to mention, that, so far from being
a constant source and disquiet and vexation to him, although
she was totally blind for the last thirty years of her life, her
mind was so well cultivated, and her conversation so agreeable,
that she very much enlivened and diverted his solitary hours ;
and though there may have happened some slight disagreements
between her and Mrs. Desmoulins, which, at the moment, dis
quieted him4, the friendship of Miss Williams contributed very
much to his comfort and happiness. For, having been the
intimate friend of his wife 5, who had invited her to his house,
she continued to reside with him, and in her he had always
a conversible companion ; who, whether at his dinners, or at his
tea-table, entertained his friends with her sensible conversation :
And being extremely clean and neat in her person and habits,
she never gave the least disgust by her manner of eating 6 ; and
1 Percy has written this note in the place of a sister ; her knowledge was
third person. great and her conversation pleasing.'
2 Life, i. 486 ; Letters, i. 91. Letters, ii. 348. See ante, i. 114.
3 Macaulay joined these biogra- 4 The disagreements were by no
phers when he describes Johnson as means slight. They troubled him
' turning his house into a place of while they lasted (Life, iii. 461 ;
refuge for a crowd of wretched old Letters, ii. 107, 122, 128), but Mrs.
creatures who could find no other Desmoulins did not come to live
asylum,' and when he says that with him till some time after the
Mrs. Williams' s ' chief recommenda- beginning of 1777, when she occu-
tions were her blindness and her pied the room assigned to Boswell
poverty.' Essays, i. 390 ; Biography (Life, iii. 104, 222), and Miss Wil-
of Johnson, Misc. Writings, p. 388. liams died in September, 1783 (ib.
See Life, i. 232, n. i, where I show iv. 235).
how untrue this statement was. In 5 Ib. i. 232.
addition to the passages cited I 6 This is an answer to Boswell,
would cite the following : — ' Last who had said that Johnson would
month died Miss Williams, who had ' sometimes incommode many of his
been to me for thirty years in the friends, by carrying her with him to
when
2i8 Anecdotes and Remarks by Bishop Percy.
when she made tea for Johnson and his friends, conducted it
with so much delicacy, by gently touching the outside of the
cup, to feel, by the heat, the tea as it ascended within, that it
was rather matter of admiration than of dislike to every attentive
observer z. (Page 298.)
This most amiable and worthy gentleman [Mr. Thrale] certainly
deserved every tribute of gratitude from Johnson and his literary
friends, who were always welcome at his hospitable table ; it
must therefore give us great concern to see his origin degraded
by any of them, in a manner that might be extremely injurious
to his elegant and accomplished daughters, if it could not be
contradicted ; for his father is represented to have been a common
drayman 2 ; whereas he is well known to have been a respectable
citizen, who increased a fortune, originally not contemptible,
and proved his mind had been always liberal, by giving a
superior education to his son. (Page 407.)
Johnson was fond of disputation, and willing to see what could
be said on each side of the question, when a subject was argued 3.
At all other times, no man had a more scrupulous regard for
truth ; from which, I verily believe, he would not have deviated
to save his life4. (Page 472.)
their houses, where, from her man
ner of eating, in consequence of her
blindness, she could not but offend
the delicacy of persons of nice sen
sations.' Life, i\\. 26.
1 Boswell had not been an atten
tive observer, for he says : — 'I
fancied she put her finger down a
certain way till she felt the tea touch
it.' Ib. 11. 99.
2 Ib. i. 490. ' The first Independent
Church was opened in 1616. In 1632
this flock was pounced upon while
privately worshipping in the house of
a brewer's clerk, and while eighteen
escaped, forty-two were thrown into
prison. The site of the edifice used
by this Church when it began to
worship publicly under the Common
wealth was afterwards occupied by
Thrale's brewery. It was there that
the Austrian marshal, Haynau, was
mobbed in 1852 for having whipped
women in the Hungarian rebellion.'
The Pilgrim Republic ', by John A.
Goodwin, Boston, 1888, p. 440.
3 ' He would begin thus : — " Why,
Sir, as to the good or evil of card-
playing — " Now (said Garrick)
he is thinking which side he shall
take." ' Life, iii. 23. See ante, ii. 92,
where in his praise of a tavern he
says : — ' I dogmatise and am contra
dicted, and in this conflict of opinions
and sentiments I find delight.'
4 Ante, i. 225, 297, 458 ; post, p.
223.
JOSHUA REYNOLDS
ON
JOHNSON'S CHARACTER*
[I HAVE been favoured (writes C. R. Leslie) by Miss Gwatkin2
with a sight of the following paper by Sir Joshua on the
character of Johnson, addressed to some mutual friend 3, perhaps
Malone (or Boswell) 4. Everything Reynolds wrote, like every
thing he painted, was destined to many alterations and cor
rections before its appearance in public 5. I have transcribed
the paper exactly, except in the matter of punctuation, and in
the introduction, now and then, of a word, between brackets, to
complete the sense.]
FROM thirty years' intimacy with Dr. Johnson6 I certainly have
had the means, if I had equally the ability, of giving you a true
and perfect idea of the character and peculiarities of this extra
ordinary man. The Jhabits of my profession unluckily extend
to the consideration of so much only of character as lies on
1 From Life and Times of Sir Lockhart's Scott, ed. 1839, ii. 63.
Joshua Reynolds by C. R. Leslie and 4 Boswell says that Reynolds
Tom Taylor, 1865, ii. 454. ' contributed to improve the second
2 The daughter of R. L. Gwatkin edition' of the Life, i. 10. He quotes
and his wife Theophila Palmer, who a paper with which he had been
was the daughter of Sir Joshua's favoured by him. Ib. i. 144.
sister Mary. Ib. i. 4, 31 ; ii. 317. 5 Hence the inferiority of his letters
3 Burke and Goldsmith fell into the to his other writings. LESLIE.
vulgarism of ' mutual friend.' Life, 6 Reynolds returned from Italy in
iii. 103, n. i ; also Sir Walter Scott. 1752. Life, i. 245.
the
220
Sir Joshua Reynolds on
the surface, as is expressed in the lineaments of the countenance.
An attempt to go deeper, and investigate the peculiar colouring
of his mind as distinguished from all other minds, nothing but
your earnest desire can excuse. Such as it is, you may make
what use of it you please. Of his learning, and so much of his
character as is discoverable in his writings and is open to the
inspection of every person, nothing need be said.
I shall remark such qualities only a's his works cannot convey.
And among those the most distinguished was his possessing
a mind which was, as I may say, always ready for use x. Most
general subjects had undoubtedly been already discussed in the
course of a studious t'hinking life. In this respect few men ever
came better prepared into whatever company chance might
throw him, and the love which he had to society gave him
a facility in the practice of applying his knowledge of the matter
in hand in which I Selieve he was never exceeded by any man.
It has been frequently observed that he was a singular instance
of a man who had so much distinguished himself by his writings
that his conversation not only supported his character as an
author, but, in the opinion of" many, was superior 2. Those who
have lived with the wits of the age know how rarely this
happens. I have had the habit of thinking that this quality, as
well as others of the same kind, are possessed in consequence of
accidental circumstances attending his life. What Dr. Johnson
said a few days before his death of his disposition to insanity
was no new discovery to those who were intimate with him3.
The character of Imlac4 in Rasselas, I always considered as
a comment on his own conduct, which he himself practised, and
1 ' Sir Joshua observed to me the
extraordinary promptitude with which
Johnson flew upon an argument.'
Life, ii. 365. ' His superiority over
other learned men consisted chiefly
in what may be called the art of
thinking, the art of using his mind.'
Ib. iv. 427.
2 ' Burke (said Johnson) is the
only man whose common conversa
tion corresponds with the general
fame which he has in the world.'
Ib. iv. 19. It was no doubt the
excellence of Johnson's talk that
made Burke affirm 'that Boswell's
Life was a greater monument to
Johnson's fame than all his writings
put together.' Life of Mackintosh,
1.92.
3 Life, i. 65; iii. 175; v. 215;
Letters, i. 39 ; ante, i. 78.
4 Life^ iii. 6.
Johnson's Character. 221
as it now appears very successfully, since we know he continued
to possess his understanding in its full vigour to the last.
Solitude to him was horror ; nor would he ever trust himself
alone but when employed in writing or reading x. He has often
begged me to go home with him to prevent his being alone in
( the coach 2. Any company was better than none ; by which he
connected himself With many mean persons whose presence he
could command. For this purpose he established a Club at
a little ale-house in Essex Street, composed of a strange
mixture of very learned and very ingenious odd people. Of
the former were Dr. Heberden, Mr. Windham, Mr. Boswell,
Mr. Stevens, Mr. Paradise. Those of the latter I do not think
proper to enumerate 3. By thus living, by necessity, so much in
company, more perhaps than any other studious man whatever,
he had acquired by habit, and which habit alone can give, that
facility, and we may add docility of mind, by which he was so
much distinguished. Another circumstance likewise contributed
not a little to the power which he had of expressing himself,
which was a rule, which he said he always practised on every
occasion, of speaking his best, whether the person to whom he
addressed himself was or was not capable of comprehending
1 ' The great business of his life every breast has felt. Reflection and
(he told Reynolds) was to escape seriousness rush upon the mind upon
from himself; this disposition he the separation of a gay company,
considered as the disease of his and especially after forced and un-
mind, which nothing cured but com- willing merriment.'
pany.' Life, i. 144 ; ante, i. 219, 231. 3 < It did not suit Sir Joshua to be
8 To W. G. Hamilton he said : — one of this Club. But when I men-
* I am very unwilling to be left alone, tion only Mr. Daines Barrington,
Sir, and therefore I go with my Dr. Brocklesby, Mr. Murphy, Mr.
company down the first pair of stairs, John Nichols, Mr. Cooke, Mr. Jod-
in some hopes that they may, per- drel, Mr. Paradise, Dr. [Bishop]
haps, return again. I go with you, Horsley, Mr. Windham, I shall suffi-
Sir, as far as the street-door.' Life, ciently obviate the misrepresentation
i. 490. of it by Sir John Hawkins, as if it
In a note on King Henry's speech had been a low ale-house association,
in Henry ' V, Act iv, sc. 5, he says:— by which Johnson was degraded.'
* There is something very striking Life, iv. 254; ante, i. 440. Among
and solemn in this soliloquy, into 'the very ingenious odd people whom
which the king breaks immediately Reynolds did not care to enumerate '
as soon as he is left alone. Some- was Barry the painter, who had grossly
thing like this, on less occasions, attacked him. Life, iv. 436.
him
222
Sir Joshua Reynolds on
him x. { If/ says he, ' I am understood, my labour is not lost.
If it is above their comprehension, there is some gratification,
though it is the admiration of ignorance ; ' and he said those
were the most sincere admirers ; and quoted Baxter, who made
it a rule never to preach a sermon without saying something
which he knew was beyond the comprehension of his audience
in order to inspire their admiration 2. Dr. Johnson, by this
continual practice, made that a habit which was at first an
exertion ; for every person who knew him must have observed
that the moment he was left out of the conversation, whether
from his deafness or from whatever cause, but a few minutes
without speaking or listening, his mind appeared to be pre
paring itself. He fell into a reverie accompanied with strange
antic gestures ; but this he never did when his mind was engaged
by the conversation. [These were] therefore improperly called
by , as well as by others, convulsions 3, . which imply in
voluntary contortions ; whereas, a word addressed to him, his
attention was recovered. Sometimes, indeed, it would be near
a minute before he would give an answer, looking as if he
laboured to bring his mind to bear on the question.
In arguing he did not trouble himself with much circum-
1 Ltfe,\v. 183.
2 ' Sir Joshua once observed to him
that he had talked above the capacity
of some people with whom they had
been in company together. " No
matter, Sir (said Johnson) ; they
consider it as a compliment to be
talked to, as if they were wiser than
they are. So true is this, Sir, that
Baxter made it a rule in every sermon
that he preached to say something
that was above the capacity of his
audience.'" Ib. iv. 185.
' To talk intentionally in a manner
above the comprehension of those
whom we address is unquestionable
pedantry ; but surely complaisance
requires that no man should without
proof conclude his company incapable
of following him to the highest eleva
tion of his fancy, or the utmost
extent of his knowledge.' The Ram
bler, No. 173.
Mr. Francis Darwin, writing of
Charles Darwin, says: — 'I have
often heard him say that he got a
kind of satisfaction in reading articles
[in Nature] which (according to him
self) he could not understand. I
wish I could reproduce the manner
in which he would laugh at himself
for it.' Life of Charles Darwin, ed.
1887, i. 127.
3 Boswell in his Tour to the He
brides had called them ' cramps, or
convulsive contractions, of the nature
of that distemper called St. Vitus's
dance' Life, v. 18. In the Life, \.
144, he inserts Reynolds's contrary
opinion. Tyers had called Johnson
' a convulsionary! See post, p. 338.
locution
Johnson's Character. 223
locution, but opposed, directly and abruptly, his antagonist. He
fought with all sorts [of] weapons ; [with] ludicrous comparisons
and similes ; [and] if all failed, with rudeness and overbearing.
He thought it necessary never to be worsted in argument x. He
had one virtue which I hold one of the most difficult to practise.
After the heat of contest was over, if he had been informed that
his antagonist resented his rudeness, he was the first to seek
after a reconciliation 2 ; and of his virtues the most distinguished
was his love of truth 3.
,-He sometimes, it must be confessed, covered his ignorance by
[generals rather than appear ignorant 4. You will wonder to hear
la person who loved him so sincerely speak thus freely of his
'iend, but, you must recollect I am not writing his panegyrick,
>ut as if upon oath, not only to give the truth but the whole
truth.
His pride had no meanness in it ; there was nothing little or
mean about him.
Truth, whether in great or little matters, he held sacred.
From the violation of truth, he said, in great things your char
acter or your interest was affected, in lesser things your pleasure
is equally destroyed. I remember, on his relating some incident,
I added something to his relation which I supposed might
likewise have happened : ' It would have been a better story,'
says he, ' if it had been so ; but it was not V Our friend
Dr. Goldsmith was not so scrupulous ; but he said he only
indulged himself in white lyes, light as feathers, which he threw
up in the air, and on whomever they fell, nobody was hurt.
' I wish/ says Dr. Johnson, « you would take the trouble of
moulting your feathers.'
I once inadvertently put him in a situation from which none
but a man of perfect integrity could extricate himself. I pointed
at some lines in the Traveller which I told [him] I was sure he
wrote. He hesitated a little ; during this hesitation I recollected
myself, that as I knew he would not lye I put him in a cleft
stick, and should have had but my due if he had given me
1 Ante, i. 390. 3 Ante, ii. 218.
2 Ante, i. 212, 453. 4 Life, v. 124, n. 4.
5 Ante, i. 225 ; Life, ii. 433.
a rough
224 Sir Joshua Reynolds on
a rough answer ; but he only said, * Sir, I did not write them,
but that you may not imagine that I have wrote more than
I really have, the utmost I have wrote in that poem, to the best
of my recollection, is not more than eighteen lines V It must
be observed there was then an opinion about town that Dr. John
son wrote the whole poem for his friend, who was then in
a manner an unknown writer2. This conduct appears to me to
be in the highest degree correct and refined. If the Dr.'s con
science would have let him told [sic] a lye, the matter would
have been soon over.
As in his writings not a line can be found which a saint would
wish to blot 3, so in his life he would never suffer the least
immorality [or] indecency of conversation, [or any thing] con
trary to virtue or piety to proceed without a severe check, which
no elevation of rank exempted them from 4. . . .
Custom, or politeness, or courtly manners has authorised
such an Eastern hyperbolical style of compliment, that part of
Dr. Johnson's character for rudeness of manners must be put to
the account of this scrupulous adherence to truth. His obstinate
silence, whilst all the company were in raptures, vying with each
other who should pepper highest, was considered as rudeness or
ill-nature 5.
During his last illness, when all hope was at an end, he
1 There were only nine lines of on my death-bed I should wish
which he could be sure they were his. blotted.' Lockhart's Scott, ed. 1839,
Life, ii. 6. x. 196.
2 Ib. iii. 252. 4 Life, iii. 40; iv. 295; ante,
3 ' The highest praise which Thorn- i. 453.
son has received ought not to be 5 To Mrs. Thrale, who was too
suppressed ; it is said by Lord Lyt- much given to flattery, he wrote : —
telton that his works contained * If you love me, and surely I hope
" No line which, dying, he could you do, why should you vitiate my
wish to blot." ' mind with a false opinion of its own
Works,\\\\. 379. merit?' Letters, i. 221. 'Think as
Sir Walter Scott said : — ' I am well and as kindly of me as you can,
drawing near to the close of my but do not flatter me. Cool recipro-
career ; I am fast shuffling off the cations of esteem are the great corn-
stage. I have been perhaps the forts of life ; hyperbolical praise only
most voluminous author of the day ; corrupts the tongue of the one and
and it is a comfort to me to think the ear of the other.' Ib. ii. 308. See
that ... I have written nothing which ante, ii. 179 n.
appeared
Johnson s Character. 225
appeared to be quieter and more resigned. His approaching
dissolution was always present to his mind. A few days before
he died, Mr. Langton and myself only present, he said he had
been a great sinner, but he hoped he had given no bad example
to his friends ; that he had some consolation in reflecting that he
had never denied Christ, and repeated the text ' Whoever denies
me, &C.1 ' We were both very ready to assure him that we were
conscious that we were better and wiser from his life and con
versation ; and that, so far from denying Christ, he had been, in
this age, his great champion 2.
Sometimes a flash of wit escaped him as if involuntary. He
was asked how he liked the new man that was hired to watch by
him. 'Instead of watching,' says he, ehe sleeps like a dormouse;
and when he helps me to bed he is awkward as a turnspit dog
the first time he is put into the wheel V
The Christian religion was with him such a certain and estab
lished truth, that he considered it as a kind of profanation to hold
any argument about its truth 4.
He was not easily imposed upon by professions to honesty
and candour ; but he appeared to have little suspicion of hypocrisy
in religion 5.
His passions were like those of other men, the difference only
lay in his keeping a stricter watch over himself6. In petty
circumstances this wayward disposition appeared, but in greater
things he thought it worth while to summon his recollection and
be always on his guard. . . . [To them that loved him not] as
1 St. Matthew x. 33. acquaintance, led him to talk on the
2 Hawkins records on Nov. 29 evidences of Christianity. Ib. i. 398,
(ante, ii. 127):— 'Mr. Langton, who 404,428,444,454. See also v. 109,
had spent the evening with him, re- n. 3.
ported that his hopes were increased, 5 * For neither man nor angel can
and that he was much cheered upon discern
being reminded of the general ten- Hypocrisy, the only evil that
dency of his writings and of his walks
example.' Invisible, except to God alone,
3 Life, iv. 411. By his permissive will, through
4 Nevertheless he wished to have Heav'n and Earth.'
more « evidence of the spiritual Paradise Lost, iii. 682.
world.' Ib. ii. 150; iii. 298 ; iv. 298. 6 Life, iv. 396 ; ante, i. 453.
Boswell, in the beginning of their
VOL. II. Q rough
226
Sir Joshua Reynolds on
rough as winter ; to those who sought his love, as mild
summer * — many instances will readily occur to those who k
him intimately, of the guard which he endeavoured always t<
keep over himself.
The prejudices he had to countries did not extend to indi
viduals. The chief prejudice in which he indulged himself w<
against Scotland, though he had the most cordial friendship with
individuals [of that country2]. This he used to vindicate as
a duty. In respect to Frenchmen he rather laughed at himseH
but it was insurmountable3. He considered every foreigner as
a fool till they had convinced him of the contrary4. Against the
Irish he entertained no prejudice, he thought they united them
selves very well with us 5 ; but the Scotch, when in England,
united and made a party by employing only Scotch servants and
Scotch tradesmen 6. He held it right for Englishmen to oppose
a party against them.
This reasoning would have more weight if the numbers were
equal. A small body in a larger has such great disadvantages that
I fear are scarce counterbalanced by whatever little combination
1 ' Lofty and sour to them that
lov'd him not,
But to those men that sought
him sweet as summer.'
Henry VIII, Act iv. sc. 2.
2 Ante, i. 427-30.
3 ' An eminent foreigner, when he
was shewn the British Museum, was
very troublesome with many absurd
inquiries. " Now there, Sir, (said
Johnson,) is the difference between
an Englishman and a Frenchman.
A Frenchman must be always talk
ing, whether he knows anything of
the matter or not ; an Englishman
is content to say nothing when he
has nothing to say." ' Life, iv. 14.
* He said, that once, when he had
a violent tooth-ach, a Frenchman
accosted him thus : — Ah, Monsieur,
'vo^ls Studies trop? Ib. iv. 15.
In a note on the scene between
Catherine and Alice in Henry V
(Act iii. sc. 4) he says : — ' Through
out the whole scene there may be
found French servility and French
vanity.' In another note on Cataian
in The Merry Wives of Windsor
(Act ii. sc. 3) he says : — ' To be a
foreigner was always in England, and
I suppose everywhere else, a reason
of dislike.'
4 ' One evening at old Slaughter's
coffee-house, when a number of
foreigners were talking loud about
little matters, he said, " Does not this
confirm old Meynell's observation —
For any thing I see, foreigners are
fools."' Life, iv. 15.
5 Ante, i. 427 ; ii. 49 ; Life, ii. 242.
6 You are, to be sure, wonderfully
free from that nationality,' said Gar-
rick to Boswell ; ' but so it happens
that you employ the only Scotch
shoe-black in London.' Life, ii. 326.
See also id. ii. 121, 307, n. 3.
they
Johnson's Character. 227
they can make. A general combination against them would be
little short of annihilation.
We are both of Dr. Johnson's school T. For my own part,
I acknowledge the highest obligations to him. He may be said
to have formed my mind, and to have brushed from it a great
deal of rubbish. Those very people whom he has brought to
think rightly will occasionally criticise the opinions of their master
when he nods. But we should always recollect that it is he him
self who taught us and enabled us to do it 2.
The drawback of his character is entertaining prejudices on
very slight foundations ; giving an opinion, perhaps, first at
random, but from its being contradicted he thinks himself obliged
always to support [it], or, if he cannot support, still not to
acquiesce [in the opposite opinion]. Of this I remember an
instance of a defect or forgetfulness in his ' Dictionary.' I asked
him how he came not to correct it in the second edition. ( No/
says he, ' they made so much of it that I would not flatter them
by altering it 3 ! '
From passion, from the prevalence of his disposition for the
minute, he was constantly acting contrary to his own reason, to
his principles. It was a frequent subject of animadversion with
him, how much authors lost of the pleasure and comfort of life
by their carrying always about them their own consequence and
celebrity 4. Yet no man in mixed company, — not to his intimates,
certainly, for that would be an insupportable slavery, — ever acted
with more circumspection to his character than himself. The
most light and airy dispute was with him a dispute on the arena 5.
1 Post, p. 359 ; Life, i. 245, n. 3 ; liberately writing it,' he did his best
iii- 369- to make it ' permanent.' 'Id. iv. 429.
2 ' It is not uncommon for those 4 * Milton, in a letter to a learned
who have grown wise by the labour stranger, by whom he had been
of others to add a little of their own visited, with great reason congratu-
and overlook their masters.' Works, lates himself upon the consciousness
vii- 470- of being found equal to his own
3 His erroneous definitions of lee- character, and having preserved in
•ward and pastern remain unchanged a private and familiar interview that
in the fourth edition, the last cor- reputation which his works had pro-
rected by him. Life, \. 293, n. 2. In cured him.' The Rambler, No. 14.
retaining these definitions, if he did 5 « Speaking of Dr. Campbell, he
not * make error pernicious by de- told us, that he one day called on
Q2 He
228 Sir Joshua Reynolds on Johnson's Character.
He fought on every occasion as if his whole reputation depended
upon the victory of the minute, and he fought with all the
weapons. If he was foiled in argument he had recourse to abuse
and rudeness *. That he was not thus strenuous for victory with
his intimates in tete-a-tete conversations when there were no
witnesses, may be easily believed2. Indeed, had his conduct
been to them the same as he exhibited to the public, his friends
could never have entertained that love and affection for him
which they all feel and profess for his memory.
But what appears extraordinary is that a man who so well
saw, himself, the folly of this ambition of shining, of speaking, or
of acting always according to the character [he] imagined [he]
possessed in the world, should produce himself the greatest
:ample of a contrary conduct.
Were I to write the Life of Dr. Johnson I would labour this
point, to separate his conduct that proceeded from his passions,
and what proceeded from his reason, from his natural disposition
jen in his quiet hours 3.
him, and they talked of Tail's Hus
bandry. Dri Campbell said some
thing. Dr. Johnson began to dis
pute it. " Come, (said Dr. Camp
bell,) we do not want to get the
better of one another: we want to
encrease each other's ideas." Dr.
Johnson took it in good part, and
the conversation then went on coolly
and instructively.' Life, v. 324.
Cobbett, on Nov. 20, 1821, went on
' a sort of pilgrimage to see the Farm
of Tull at Shalborne in Berkshire . . .
where Tull wrote that book which
does so much honour to his memory.'
Rural Rides, ed. 1893, i. 43, 5.
1 See ante, i. 327 n., for his 're
course to abuse and rudeness ' in
arguing with Reynolds one day at
dinner about wine. See also ante,
i- 453-
2 'When the meeting was over,
Mr. Steevens observed, that the ques
tion between him and his friend had
been agitated with rather too much
warmth. " It may be so, Sir, (re
plied the Doctor,) for Burke and
I should have been of one opinion
if we had had no audience." ' The
dispute had been about 'the tendency
of some part of the defence ' which
Baretti was to make on his trial for
his life. Life, iv. 324.
3 ' If you come to settle here,' he
said to Bos well, ' we will have one
day in the week on which we will
meet by ourselves. That is the hap
piest conversation where there is no
competition, no vanity, but a calm
quiet interchange of sentiments.'
Ib. ii. 359.
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS
JOHNSON'S INFLUENCE
I REMEMBER Mr. Burke, speaking of the Essays of Sir Francis
Bacon, said, he thought them the best of his works. Dr. Johnson
was of opinion, that ' their excellence and their value consisted
in being the observations of a strong mind operating upon life ;
and in consequence you find there what you seldom find in other
books V It is this kind of excellence which gives a value to the
1 From an unfinished Discourse,
found by Mr. Malone among Sir
Joshua's loose papers. Reynolds's
Works, ed. 1797, vol. i. Preface,
p. 19.
2 'He told me that Bacon was a
favourite authour with him ; but he
had never read his works till he was
compiling the English Dictionary,
in which, he said, I might see Bacon
very often quoted.' Life, iii. 194.
' Bacon seems to have pleased
himself chiefly with his Essays, which
come home to men's business and
bosoms, and of which therefore he
declares his expectation that they
•will live as long as books last' The
Rambler, No. 106. It was of the
Latin version that Bacon spoke —
'being in the universal language it
may last as long as books last.'
Bacon's Works, ed. 1803, ii. 252.
In the Adventurer, No. 131, John
son says that Bacon, 'after having
surveyed nature as a philosopher,
had examined " men's business and
bosoms " as a statesman.'
Boswell quotes Johnson as say
ing : — ' Bacon observes that a stout
healthy old man is like a tower
undermined.' Life, iv. 277. This
passage I have never found in
Bacon, though I have often searched
for it. Huet, Johnson's 'celebrated
Huetius' (ib. iii. 172), compared 'la
santd ruineuse des vieillards k une
tour sape'e.' Sainte-Beuve, Cause-
ries de Lundi, ii. 182.
' Dr. Bentley used to compare
himself to an old trunk, which, if
you let it alone, will stand in a
corner a long time ; but if you jumble
it by moving it will soon fall to
pieces.' Nichols, Lit. Anec. iv. 351.
performances
230 Sir Joshua Reynolds on
performances of artists also. It is the thoughts expressed in the
works of Michael Angelo, Correggio, Raffaelle, Parmegiano, and
perhaps some of the old Gothic masters *, and not the inventions
of Pietro da Cortona, Carlo Marati, Luca Giordano, and others,
that I might mention, which we seek after with avidity : from
the former we learn to think originally.
May I presume to introduce myself on this occasion, and even
to mention, as an instance of the truth of what I have remarked,
the very Discourses which I have had the honour of delivering
from this place ? Whatever merit they have, must be imputed,
in a great measure, to the education which I may be said to have
had under Dr. Johnson. I do not mean to say, though it
certainly would be to the credit of these Discourses, if I could
say it with truth, that he contributed even a single sentiment to
them 2 ; but he qualified my mind to think justly. No man had,
like him, the faculty of teaching inferior minds the art of thinking.
Perhaps other men might have equal knowledge ; but few were
/-so communicative. His great pleasure was to talk to those who
( looked up to him, ft was here "h"e exhibited his wonderful
powers. In mixed company, and frequently in company that
ought to have looked up to him, many, thinking they had a
character for learning to support, considered it as beneath them
to enlist in the train of his auditors ; and to such persons he
certainly did not appear to advantage, being often impetuous and
overbearing 3.
1 f Under the rudeness of Gothic 2 He wrote the Dedication. Life,
essays a skilful painter will find ii. 2, n. i, and ante, ii. 29.
original, rational, and even sublime 3 ' On Saturday, May 2, I dined
inventions. The works of Albert with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's,
Durer, Lucas Van Leyden, the where there was a very large corn-
numerous inventions of Tobias Stim- pany, and a great deal of conversa-
mer and Jost Ammon afford a rich tion ; but owing to some circum-
mass of genuine materials, which stance which I cannot now recollect,
wrought up and polished to elegance I have no record of any part of it,
will add copiousness to what, per- except that there were several people
haps, without such aid could have there by no means of the Johnsonian
aspired only to justness and pro- school; so that less attention was
priety.' Reynolds's Sixth Discourse, paid to him than usual, which put
Works, 1824, i. 137. For Gothic him out of humour ; and upon
see also ante, i. 478. some imaginary offence from me he
The
Johnson s Influence. 231
The desire of shining in conversation was in him, vindeed, a
predominant passion ; and if it must be attributed to vanity, let
it at the same time be recollected, that it produced that loqua
ciousness from which his more intimate friends derived consider
able advantage. The observations which he made on poetry, on
life, and on every thing about us, I applied to our art ; with
what success, others must judge. Perhaps an artist in his
studies should pursue the same conduct ; and, instead of patching
up a particular work on the narrow plan of imitation, rather en
deavour to acquire the art and power of thinking. On this
subject I have often spoken J ; but it cannot be too often repeated,
that the general power of composition may be acquired ; and
when acquired, the artist may then lawfully take hints from his
predecessors. In reality, indeed, it appears to me, that a man
must begin by the study of others. Thus Bacon became a great
thinker, by entering into and making himself master of the
thoughts of other men.
attacked me with such rudeness that which he probably retained from
I was vexed and angry.' Life, iii. Johnson's talk : — * Some allowance
337. must be made for what is said in
1 Reynolds's Sixth Discourse is on the gaiety of rhetoric' Reynolds's
imitation. In it he has a phrase Works, 1824, i. 118.
TWO DIALOGUES
BY
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS
IN IMITATION OF JOHNSON'S STYLE OF CONVERSATION1
[THE following yVw d' esprit was written by Sir Joshua Reynolds
to illustrate a remark which he had made, that ' Dr. Johnson
* These dialogues were printed in
1816 from the MS. of Sir Joshua,
by his niece, Lady Thomond : they
were not published, but distributed
by her ladyship to some friends of
Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua. The
copy which I have was spontaneously
transmitted to me by Mrs. Gwynn,
the friend of Goldsmith and of John
son, whose early beauty is celebrated
in the first part of this work (Vol. i.
p. 414), and who is still distinguished
for her amiable character and high
mental accomplishments. Lady Tho
mond, in the prefatory note, calls
this a 'jeu d1 esprit 'J but I was in
formed by the late Sir George
Beaumont, who knew all the parties,
and to whom Reynolds himself gave
a copy of it, that if the words jeu
cTesprit were to be understood to
imply that it was altogether an in
vention of Sir Joshua's, the term
would be erroneous. The substance,
and many of the expressions, of
the dialogues did really occur; Sir
Joshua did little more than collect,
as if into two conversations, what
had been uttered at many, and
heighten the effect by the juxta
position of such discordant opinions.'
— CROKER.
Mary Palmer, the daughter of
Sir Joshua's sister Mary, inherited
the bulk of his property, and married
the first Marquis of Thomond. Les
lie and Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 635.
Lady Thomond sent a copy of these
Dialogues to Hannah More thirty-
six years after Johnson's death, who
replied:— 'I hear the deep-toned
and indignant accents of our friend
Johnson. I hear the affected periods
of Gibbon ; the natural, the easy,
the friendly, the elegant language,
the polished sarcasm, softened with
the sweet temper of Sir Joshua.'
Ib. ii. 259.
Miss Hawkins published the Dia
logues in her Memoirs, i. 109.
Reynolds left Sir George Beau
mont by his will Sebastian Bourdon's
considered
Two Dialogues by Sir Joshua Reynolds. 233
considered Garrick as his property, and would never suffer any
one to praise or abuse him but himself1.' In the first of these
supposed dialogues, Sir Joshua himself, by high encomiums
upon Garrick, is represented as drawing down upon him John
son's censure ; in the second, Mr. Gibbon, by taking the opposite
side, calls forth his praise 2.]
JOHNSON AGAINST GARRICK.
Dr. Johnson and Sir Joshua Reynolds.
REYNOLDS. Let me alone, I'll bring him out3. (Aside.}
I have been thinking, Dr. Johnson, this morning, on a matter
that has puzzled me very much ; it is a subject that I dare say
has often passed in your thoughts, and though / cannot, I dare
say you have made up your mind upon it.
JOHNSON. Tilly fally4! what is all this preparation, what is
all this mighty matter ?
REY. Why, it is a very weighty matter. The subject I have
been thinking upon is predestination and freewill, two things
I cannot reconcile together for the life of me ; in my opinion,
Dr. Johnson, freewill and foreknowledge cannot be reconciled 5.
Return of the Ark, now in the tered into such an argument. He
National Gallery. Lesli'e and Taylor's would not have 'trusted himself with
Reynolds, ii.636. To him Wordsworth Johnson.' Life, ii. 366. Miss Burney
addressed an Epistle, though Beau- records his silence when she met
mont never saw it. Wordsworth's him and Burke. Sir Joshua explained
Works, ed. 1857, iv. 308. it by saying, ' He's terribly afraid
1 ' Sir Joshua Reynolds observed, you'll snatch at him for a character
with great truth, that Johnson con- in your next book.' Memoirs of Dr.
sidered Garrick to be as it were his Burney, ii. 239. Horace Walpole,
property. He would allow no man when the first volume of the Decline
either to blame or to praise Garrick and Fall appeared, wrote (Letters,
in his presence, without contradicting vi. 311), 'I know Mr. Gibbon a little,
him.' Life, iii. 312. See also ante, never suspected the extent of his
i. 456. talents, for he is perfectly modest, or
' In my conscience I believe the I want penetration, which I know too.'
baggage loves me ; for she never 3 For instances of this see Letters,
speaks well of me herself, nor suffers ii. 439, and Life, iii. 70.
anybody else to rail at me.' Con- 4 Tillyvally. Twelfth Night, Act
greve, Old Bachelor, Act i. sc. I. ii. sc. 3.
3 'Gibbon would scarcely have en- 5 Boswell often worried Johnson
JOHNS.
234 Two Dialogues by
JOHNS. Sir, it is not of very great importance what your
opinion is upon such a question.
REY. But I meant only, Dr. Johnson, to know your opinion.
JOHNS. No, Sir, you meant no such thing ; you meant only
to show these gentlemen that you are not the man they took
you to be, but that you think of high matters sometimes, and
that you may have the credit of having it said that you held an
argument with Sam Johnson on predestination and freewill J ;
a subject of that magnitude as to have engaged the attention of
the world, to have perplexed the wisdom of man for these two
thousand years 2 ; a subject on which the fallen angels, who had
yet not lost their original brightness 3, find themselves in wander
ing mazes lost*1. That such a subject could be discussed in the
levity of convivial conversation, is a degree of absurdity beyond
what is easily conceivable 5.
REY. It is so, as you say, to be sure ; I talked once to our
friend Garrick upon this subject, but I remember we could make
nothing of it.
JOHNS. O noble pair6!
REY. Garrick was a clever fellow7, Dr. J. ; Garrick, take him
altogether, was certainly a very great man.
JOHNS. Garrick, Sir, may be a great man in your opinion,
about free will, and got such answers ' His form had yet not lost
as the following : — ' Sir, we know our All her original brightness.'
will is free, and there's an end on't.' Paradise Lost, i. 591.
Life, ii. 82. ' All theory is against the 4 Ib. ii. 561.
freedom of the will ; all experience 5 ' I wonder, Sir, how a gentleman
for it.' Jb. iii. 291. * But, Sir, as to of your piety can introduce this sub-
the doctrine of Necessity, no man ject in a mixed company.' Life, ii.
believes it.' Ib. iv. 329. See also 254.
ib. ii. 104; v. 117 ; and/^/, p. 256. 6 * Par nobile fratrum.' HORACE,
1 Ante, i. 285. 2 Satires, iii. 243.
2 'JOHNSON (with solemn vehe- 7 When Reynolds applied the
mence). " Yes, Madam ; this is a epithet clever to Garrick, as a justifi-
question [the appearance of ghosts] cation for discussing free-will with
which after five thousand years is yet him, Johnson might have replied in
undecided; a question, whether in the words of his Dictionary. — 'Clever
theology or philosophy, one of the is a low word, scarcely ever used but
most important that can come before in burlesque or conversation ; and
the human understanding.' Life, applied to anything a man likes,
iii. 298. without a settled meaning.'
as
Sir Joshua Reynolds. 235
as far as I know, but he was not so in mine ; little things are
great to little men x.
REY. I have heard you say, Dr. Johnson
JOHNS. Sir, you never heard me say that David Garrick
was a great man 2 ; you may have heard me say that Garrick
was a good repeater — of other men's words — words put into
his mouth by other men ; this makes but a faint approach
towards being a great man.
REY. But take Garrick upon the whole, now, in regard to
conversation
JOHNS. Well, Sir, in regard to conversation, I never discovered
in the conversation of David Garrick any intellectual energy,
any wide grasp of thought, any extensive comprehension of
mind, or that he possessed any of those powers to which great
could, with any degree of propriety, be applied 3.
REY. But still
JOHNS. Hold, Sir, I have not done — there are, to be sure,
in the laxity of colloquial speech, various kinds of greatness ;
a man may be a great tobacconist, a man may be a great
painter, he may be likewise a great mimic: now you may be
the one, and Garrick the other, anxi yet neither of you be
great men.
REY. But, Dr. Johnson
JOHNS. Hold, Sir, I have often lamented how dangerous it
1 ' These little things are great to things. There is no solid meat in
little man.' it ; there is a want of sentiment in
Goldsmith, The Traveller, 1. 42. it." ' fb. ii. 464. Boswell wrote on
2 'Nay, Sir, a ballad-singer is a March 18, 1775 :— ' Mr. Johnson,
higher man, for he does two things ; when enumerating our Club, observed
he repeats and he sings ; there is of spme of us, that they talked
both recitation and music in his per- from books, — Langton in particular,
formance ; the player only recites.' " Garrick," he said, " would talk
Life, iii. 184. from books, if he talked seriously."
3 ' Talking of Garrick, Johnspn " /," said he, " do not talk from
said, "He is the first man in the books : you do not talk from books."
world for sprightly conversation." ' This was a compliment to my
Ib. i. 398. originality ; but I am afraid I have
' JOHNSON. " Garrick's conversa- not read books enough to be able to
tion is gay and grotesque. It is talk from them.' Letters of Boswell,
a dish of all sorts, but all good p. 181.
is
236
Two Dialogues by
is to investigate and to discriminate character, to men who
have no discriminative powers z.
REY. But Garrick, as a companion, I heard you say — no
longer ago than last Wednesday, at Mr. Thrale's table
JOHNS. You tease me, Sir. Whatever you may have heard
me say, no longer ago than last Wednesday, at Mr. Thrale's
table, I tell you I do not say so now : besides, as I said before,
you may not have understood me, you misapprehended me,
you may not have heard me.
REY. I am very sure I heard you.
JOHNS. Besides, besides, Sir, besides, — do you not know,— are
you so ignorant as not to know, that it is the highest degree of
rudeness to quote a man against himself2 ?
REY. But if you differ from yourself, and give one opinion
to-day
JOHNS. Have done, Sir ; the company, you see, are tired,
as well as myself3.
1 'Dr. Johnson (said Reynolds)
was fond of discrimination, which he
could not show without pointing out
the bad as well as the good in every
character; and as his friends were
those whose characters he knew best,
they afforded him the best oppor
tunity for showing the acuteness of
his judgment.' Life, ii. 306.
2 ' One of the company provoked
him greatly by doing what he could
least of all bear, which was quoting
something of his own writing, against
what he then maintained. "What,
Sir, (cried the gentleman,) do you
say to
( The busy day, the peaceful night,
Unfelt, uncounted, glided by?"'—
Johnson rinding himself thus pre
sented as giving an instance of a man
who had lived without uneasiness,
was much offended, for he looked
upon such a quotation as unfair.
His anger burst out in an unjustifi
able retort, insinuating that the
gentleman's remark was a sally of
ebriety; "Sir, there is one passion
I would advise you to command :
when you have drunk out that glass,
don't drink another.'" Ib. iv. 274.
The quotation is from the Lines on
Levett. Ib. iv. 138.
3 * Johnson could not brook ap
pearing to be worsted in argument,
even when he had taken the wrong
side, to shew the force and dexterity
of his talents. When, therefore, he
perceived that his opponent gained
ground, he had recourse to some
sudden mode of robust sophistry.
Once when I was pressing upon him
with visible advantage, he stopped
me thus : " My dear Boswell, let's
have no more of this ; you'll make
nothing of it. I'd rather have you
whistle a Scotch tune.'" Ib. iv.
ill.
T'OTHER
Sir Joshua Reynolds. 237
T'OTHER SIDE.
Dr. Johnson and Mr. Gibbon.
JOHNSON. No, Sir ; Garrick's fame was prodigious, not only
in England, but over all Europe z. Even in Russia 2 I have been
told he was a proverb; when any one had repeated well, he
was called a second Garrick.
GIBBON. I think he had full as much reputation as he de
served.
JOHNS. I do not pretend to know, Sir, what your meaning
may be, by saying he had as much reputation as he deserved ;
he deserved much, and he had much.
GIB. Why, surely, Dr. Johnson, his merit was in small things
only, he had none of those qualities that make a real great
man.
JOHNS. Sir, I as little understand what your meaning may
be when you speak of the qualities that make a great man ; it
is a vague term. Garrick was no common man ; a man above
the common size of men may surely, without any great impro
priety, be called a great man. In my opinion he has very
reasonably fulfilled the prophecy which he once reminded me
of having made to his mother, when she asked me how little
David went on at school3, that I should say to her, that he
would come to be hanged, or come to be a great man. No,
Sir, it is undoubtedly true that the same qualities, united with
virtue or with vice, make a hero or a rogue, a great general
or a highwayman. Now Garrick, we are sure, was never hanged,
1 ' Johnson said of Garrick, " Sir, au Sujet d'une savante Fille en
a man who has a nation to admire Angleterre ; publiees dans le Sot-
him every night may well be expected schinenie, ou Melanges de Litte'ra-
to be somewhat elated.'" Life, iv. 7. ture en Russe, pour le mois de Mai,
'His death eclipsed the gaiety of 1759^.470.' Ib. ii. 417. A trans -
nations.' Ib. i. 82. lation of Joseph Andrews was pub-
2 ' Even in Russia, where, as Mrs. lished in St. Petersburgh in 1772.
Carter humorously observed, they Strangely enough a railway-station
were just learning to walk upon their is called in Russian Vauxhall, after
hind legs, an account was published the famous gardens in Chelsea.
of her.' Memoirs of Mrs. Carter, 3 Garrick was nineteen when he
i. 212. It was entitled, ' Anecdotes became Johnson's pupil.
and
238
Two Dialogues by
and in regard to his being a great man, you must take the
whole man together. It must be considered in how many
things Garrick excelled in which every man desires to excel :
setting aside his excellence as an actor, in which he is acknow
ledged to be unrivalled : as a man, as a poet, as a convivial
companion *, you will find but few his equals, and none his
superior. As a man, he was kind, friendly, benevolent, and
generous.
GIB. Of Garrick's generosity I never heard ; I understood his
character to be totally the reverse, and that he was reckoned
to have loved money.
JOHNS. That he loved money, nobody will dispute ; who does
not? but if you mean, by loving money, that he was parsi
monious to a fault, Sir, you have been misinformed. To Foote2,
and such scoundrels, who circulated those reports, to such
profligate spendthrifts prudence is meanness, and economy is
avarice. That Garrick, in early youth, was brought up in strict
habits of economy, I believe, and that they were necessary,
I have heard from himself; to suppose that Garrick might
inadvertently act from this habit, and be saving in small things,
can be no wonder 3 : but let it be remembered at the same time,
that if he was frugal by habit, he was liberal from principle 4 ;
1 ' Garrick was a very good man,
the cheerfullest man of his age.' Life,
iii. 387. 'Having expatiated with
his usual force and eloquence on his
extraordinary eminence as an actor,
Johnson concluded : " And after all,
Madam, I thought him less to be
envied on the stage than at the head
of a table." ' Ib. iv. 243.
2 'Foote used to say of Garrick
that he walked out with an intention
to do a generous action ; but, turning
the corner of a street, he met with
the ghost of a halfpenny, which
frightened him.' Ib. iii. 264. ' There
is a witty satirical story of Foote.
He had a small bust of Garrick
placed upon his bureau. " You may
be surprised (said he) that I allow
him to be so near my gold ;— but
you will observe he has no hands." '
Ib. iv. 224.
3 ' Garrick (said Johnson) was very
poor when he began life ; so when
he came to have money he probably
was very unskilful in giving away,
and saved when he should not. But
Garrick began to be liberal as soon
as he could.' Ib. iii. 70. ' He began
the world with a great hunger for
money ; the son of a half-pay officer,
bred in a family whose study was to
make four-pence do as much as
others made four-pence halfpenny
do. But when he got money he was
very liberal.' Ib. iii. 387.
4 ' Swift was frugal by inclination,
but liberal by principle.' Works,
viii. 222.
that
Sir Joshua Reynolds. 239
that when he acted from reflection, he did what his fortune
enabled him to do, and what was expected from such a fortune.
I remember no instance of David's parsimony but once, when
he stopped Mrs. Woffington from replenishing the tea-pot ; it
was already, he said, as red as blood; and this instance is
doubtful, and happened many years ago1. In the latter part
of his life I observed no blameable parsimony in David ; his
table was elegant and even splendid ; his house both in town
and country, his equipage, and I think all his habits of life,
were such as might be expected from a man who had acquired
great riches 2. In regard to his generosity, which you seem to
question, I shall only say, there is no man to whom I would
apply with more confidence of success, for the loan of two
hundred pounds to assist a common friend, than to David,
and this too with very little, if any, probability of its being
repaid 3.
GIB. You were going to say something of him as a writer —
you don't rate him very high as a poet.
JOHNS. Sir, a man may be a respectable poet without being
a Homer, as a man may be a good player without being
a Garrick. In the lighter kinds of poetry, in the appendages
of the drama, he was, if not the first, in the very first class*.
He had a readiness and facility, a dexterity of mind that
appeared extraordinary even to men of experience, and who
are not apt to wonder from ignorance. Writing prologues,
epilogues, and epigrams, he said he considered as his trade 5,
and he was, what a man should be, always, and at all times,
ready at his trade. He required two hours for a prologue 6 or
1 Reynolds had the anecdote from ostentatious views.' Ib. iii. 70. See
Johnson, who had been present at also ib. iii. 264, n. 3.
the tea party. Life> iii. 264, n. 4. 4 ' As a wit, if not first, in the very
2 ' Garrick might have been much first line.'
better attacked for living with more Goldsmith's Retaliation.
splendour than is suitable to a player.' s Garrick said: — 'I am a little
Ib. iii. 71. of an epigrammatist myself, you
3 * Yes, Sir, I know that Garrick know.' Life, iii. 258.
has given away more money than 6 < Dryden (said Johnson) has
any man in England that I am ac- written prologues superior to any
quainted with, and that not from that David Garrick has written ; but
epilogue
240 Two Dialogues by
epilogue, and five minutes for an epigram. Once at Burke's
table the company proposed a subject, and Garrick finished
his epigram within the time ; the same experiment was repeated
in the garden, and with the same success.
GIB. Garrick had some flippancy of parts, to be sure, and
was brisk and lively in company, and by the help of mimicry
and story-telling, made himself a pleasant companion ; but here
the whole world gave the superiority to Foote, and Garrick
himself appears to have felt as if his genius was rebuked * by
the superior powers of Foote. It has been often observed, that
Garrick never dared to enter into competition with him, but
was content to act an under part to bring Foote out.
JOHNS. That this conduct of Garrick's might be interpreted
by the gross minds of Foote and his friends, as if he was afraid
to encounter him, I can easily imagine. Of the natural supe
riority of Garrick over Foote, this conduct is an instance : he
disdained entering into competition with such a fellow, and
made him the buffoon of the company ; or, as you say, brought
him out. And what was at last brought out but coarse jests
and vulgar merriment, indecency and impiety2, a relation of
events which, upon the face of them, could never have happened,
characters grossly conceived and as coarsely represented ? Foote
was even no mimic ; he went out of himself, it is true, but
without going into another man 3 ; he was excelled by Garrick
David Garrick has written more good ' Under him
prologues than Dryden has done.' My Genius is rebuked.'
Life, ii. 325. Macbeth, Act iii. sc. 1, 1. 55.
Horace Walpole wrote of Garrick 2 Johnson in a letter to Mrs.
on Oct. 16, 1769 (Letters, v. 197) :— Thrale said :—' Murphy ought to
* As that man's writings will be pre- write Foote's life, at least to give the
served by his name, who will believe world a Footeana? As a marginal
that he was a tolerable actor. His note on this Baretti wrote : — ' One
prologues and epilogues are as bad half of it had been a string of ob-
as his Pindarics and Pantomimes.' scenities.3 Letters, ii. 55.
A few months earlier J. Sharp 3 ' BOSWELL. " I don't think Foote
wrote to Garrick from Cambridge : — a good mimic, Sir." JOHNSON. " No,
* I met Mr. Gray here at dinner last Sir ; his imitations are not like. He
Sunday; he spoke handsomely of gives you something different from
your happy knack at epilogues.' himself, but not the character which
Garrick Corres. i. 349. he means to assume. He goes out
even
Sir Joshua Reynolds.
241
even in this, which is considered as Foote's greatest excellence.
Garrick. besides his exact imitation of the voice and gesture of
his original, to a degree of refinement of which Foote had no
conception, exhibited the mind and mode of thinking of the
person imitated. Besides, Garrick confined his powers within
the limits of decency; he had a character to preserve, Foote
had none x. By Foote's buffoonery and broad-faced merriment 2,
private friendship, public decency, and every thing estimable
amongst men, were trod under foot. We all know the differ
ence of their reception in the world. No man, however high
in rank or literature, but was -proud to know Garrick, and was
glad to have him at his table 3 ; no man ever considered or
treated Garrick as a player; he may be said to have stepped
out of his own rank into a higher, and by raising himself, he
raised the rank of his profession4. At a convivial table his
of himself without going into other
people.' Life,\\. 154. * Foote being
mentioned, Johnson said, " He is
not a good mimic."' /<£. iii. 69.
1 'Then Foote has a great range
for wit; he never lets truth stand
between him and a jest, and he is
sometimes mighty coarse. Garrick
is under many restraints from which
Foote is free.' Ib. iii. 69. ' Garrick
is restrained by some principle, but
Foote has the advantage of an un
limited range.' Ib. v. 391.
2 ' Foote told me (writes Boswell)
that Johnson said of him : — " For
loud, obstreperous, broad-faced mirth
I know not his equal." ' Ib. iii. 70,
n. i.
( 'A gentleman attacked Garrick
for being vain. JOHNSON. " No
wonder, Sir, that he is vain ; a man
who is perpetually flattered in every
mode that can be conceived. So
many bellows have blown the fire,
that one wonders he is not by this
time become a cinder." BOSWELL.
" And such bellows too. Lord Mans
field with his cheeks like to burst :
VOL. II.
Lord Chatham like an
have read such notes from them to
him, as were enough to turn his
head." ' Ib. ii. 227.
Among the pall-bearers at his
funeral were the Duke of Devonshire,
Earl Spencer, the Earl of Ossory,
Lord Camden, and Viscount Palmer-
ston. The service was performed by
the Bishop of Rochester. The train
of carriages reached from Charing
Cross to the Abbey. Murphy's
Garrick, p. 349.
4 ' Here is a man who has ad
vanced the dignity of his profession.
Garrick has made a player a higher
character.' Life, iii. 263.
A great change had taken place
before Garrick's day. Pope wrote
in 1725 of the players in Shake
speare's time : — ' They were led into
the Buttery by the Steward, not
plac'd at the Lord's table, or Lady's
toilette ; and consequently were en
tirely depriv'd of those advantages
they now enjoy in the familiar con
versation of our Nobility, and an
intimacy (not to say dearness) with
R exhilarating
242
Two Dialogues by
exhilarating powers were unrivalled ; he was lively, entertaining,
quick in discerning the ridicule of life, and as ready in repre
senting it ; and on graver subjects there were few topics in
which he could not bear his part. It is injurious to the character
of Garrick to be named in the same breath with Foote x. That
Foote was admitted sometimes into good company (to do the
man what credit I can) I will allow; but then it was merely
to play tricks : Foote's merriment was that of a buffoon 2, and
Garrick's that of a gentleman 3.
GIB. I have been told, on the contrary, that Garrick in
company had not the easy manners of a gentleman.
JOHNS. Sir, I don't know what you may have been told, or
wrhat your ideas may be, of the manners of a gentleman : Garrick
had no vulgarity in his manners ; it is true Garrick had not
the airiness of a fop, nor did he assume an affected indifference
to what was passing ; he did not lounge from the table to the
window, and from thence to the fire, or, whilst you were
people of the first condition.' John
son's Shakespeare, vol. i. Preface,
p. 90.
1 On Foote's death Johnson wrote
to Mrs. Thrale :— ' Did you think he
would so soon be gone ? Life, says
Falstaff, is a shuttle. He was a fine
fellow in his way ; and the world is
really impoverished by his sinking
glories.' Letters, ii. 55.
2 ' BOSWELL. " If Betterton and
Foote were to walk into this rootn,
you would respect Betterton much
more than Foote." JOHNSON. " If
Betterton were to walk into this
room with Foote, Foote would soon
drive him out of it. Foote, Sir,
quatenus Foote^ has powers superior
to them all." ' Life, iii. 185.
How great an actor Betterton was
is shown by a fine paper in the
Tatler (No. 167) on his funeral in
Westminster Abbey. ' From his
action/ writes Steele, * I had received
more strong impressions of what is
great and noble in human nature
than from the arguments of the most
solid philosophers, or the descrip
tions of the most charming poets
I had ever read.' Steele goes on to
quote the lines beginning
' To-morrow, and to-morrow, and
to-morrow,'
from the text, I suppose, at that
time in common use 6n the stage.
* The way to dusty death,' for in
stance, is changed 'to the eternal
night.'
Dr. Warton says that 'an old
frequenter of the theatre' told him
that on Betterton's last performance
' many spectators got into the play
house by nine o'clock in the morning,
and carried with them provisions for
the day.' Warton's Pope's Works,
ed. 1882, vii. 119.
3 ' JOHNSON. " Garrick's great
distinction is his universality. He
can represent all modes of life but
that of an easy fine-bred gentle
man."' Life,v.i26.
addressing
Sir Joshua Reynolds. 243
addressing your discourse to him, turn from you anxl talk to
his next neighbour, or give any indication that he was tired of
your company x ; if such manners form your ideas of a fine
gentleman, Garrick certainly had them not.
GlB. I mean that Garrick was more overawed by the presence
of the great, and more obsequious to rank, than Foote, who
considered himself as their equal, and treated them with the
same familiarity as they treated each other.
JOHNS. He did so, and what did the fellow get by it? The
grossness of his mind prevented him from seeing that this
familiarity was merely suffered as they would play with a dog ;
he got no ground by affecting to call peers by their surnames ;
the foolish fellow fancied that lowering them was raising himself
to their level ; this affectation of familiarity with the great,
this childish ambition of momentary exaltation obtained by the
neglect of those ceremonies which custom has established as
the barriers between one order of society and another, only
showed his folly and meanness 2 ; he did not see that by
encroaching on others' dignity, he puts himself in their power
either to be repelled with helpless indignity, or endured by
clemency and condescension3. Garrick, by paying due respect
to rank, respected himself; what he gave was returned, and
1 * There are (said Johnson) ten man and he Sam. Johnson. . . . There
genteel women for one genteel man, would be a perpetual struggle for
because they are more restrained. precedence were there no fixed in-
A man without some degree of re- variable rules for the distinction of
straint is insufferable; but we are rank, which creates no jealousy as
all less restrained than women. Were it is allowed to be accidental.' Ib.
a woman sitting in company to put i. 447. ' No one,' wrote Mrs. Piozzi,
out her legs before her as most men ' was so careful to maintain the cere-
do, we should be tempted to kick monies of life as Dr. Johnson.' Ante,
them in.' Life, iii. 53. i. 318.
' He again insisted on the duty 3 'A great mind disdains to hold
of maintaining subordination of rank. any thing by courtesy, and therefore
" Sir, I would no more deprive a never usurps what a lawful claimant
nobleman of his respect, than of his may take away. He that encroaches
money. I consider myself as acting on another's dignity puts himself in
a part in the great system of society, his power ; he is either repelled with
and I do to others as I would have helpless indignity, or endured by
them to do to me. I would behave clemency and condescension.' Works,
to a nobleman as I should expect he viii. 225.
would behave to me, were I a noble-
R 2, what
244
Two Dialogues by
what was returned he kept for ever ; his advancement was on
firm ground, he was recognised in public as well as respected
in private, and as no man was ever more courted and better
received by the public, so no man was ever less spoiled by
its flattery : Garrick continued advancing to the last, till he had
acquired every advantage that high birth or title could bestow,
except the precedence of going into a room ; but when he was
there, he was treated with as much attention as the first man
at the table. It is to the credit of Garrick, that he never laid
any claim to this distinction ; it was as voluntarily allowed as
if it had been his birthright *. In this, I confess, I looked on
David with some degree of envy, not so much for the respect
he received, as for the manner of its being acquired ; what fell
into his lap unsought, I have been forced to claim. I began
the world by fighting my way. There was something about
me that invited insult, or at least a disposition to neglect 2,
and I was equally disposed to repel insult and to claim attention,
and I fear continue too much in this disposition now it is no
longer necessary ; I receive at present as much favour as I have
a right to expect. I am not one of the complainers of the
neglect of merit 3.
1 ' I then slily introduced Mr. Gar-
rick's fame, and his assuming the
airs of a great man. JOHNSON.
" Sir, it is wonderful how little
Garrick assumes. No, Sir, Garrick
fortunam reverenter habet. Con
sider, Sir : celebrated men, such as
you have mentioned, have had their
applause at a distance ; but Garrick
had it dashed in his face, sounded in
his ears, and went home every night
with the plaudits of a thousand in
his cranmm. Then, Sir, Garrick
did not find, but made his way to
the tables, the levees, and almost
the bed-chambers of the great If
all this had happened to me, I should
have had a couple of fellows with
long poles walking before me, to
knock down every body that stood
in the way. Consider, if all this had
happened to Gibber or Quin, they'd
have jumped over the moon.— Yet
Garrick speaks to us" (smiling).'
Life, iii. 263.
2 ' Dr. Johnson told Mr. Thrale
once that he had never sought to
please till past thirty years old,
considering the matter as hopeless.'
Ante, i. 318.
' Strange, however, it is to consider
how few of the great sought John
son's society.' Life, iv. 117. 'I never
have sought the world (he said ;) the
world was not to seek me.' Ib. iv.
172.
3 'JOHNSON. "Sir, I have never
complained of the world ; nor do
I think that I have reason to com
plain. It is rather to be wondered
at that I have so much.'" Ib. iv.
116.
GIB.
Sir Joshua Reynolds. 245
GlB. Your pretensions, Dr. Johnson, nobody will dispute ;
I cannot place Garrick on the same footing : your reputation
will continue increasing after your death, when Garrick will
be totally forgotten ; you will be for ever considered as a
classic
JOHNS. Enough, Sir, enough ; the company would be better
pleased to see us quarrel than bandying compliments 1.
GlB. But you must allow, Dr. Johnson, that Garrick was too
much a slave to fame, or rather to the mean ambition of living
with the great, terribly afraid of making himself cheap even with
them ; by which he debarred himself of much pleasant society.
Employing so much attention, and so much management upon
such little things, implies, I think, a little mind. It was observed
by his friend Colman, that he never went into company but with
a plot how to get out of it 2 ; he was every minute called out,
and went off or returned as there was or was not a probability of
his shining.
JOHNS. In regard to his mean ambition, as you call it, of
living with the great, what was the boast of Pope 3, and is every
1 'It was not for me to bandy escape out of it.' Prior's Malone,
civilities with my Sovereign.' Life, p. 376. Reynolds described to
ii. 35. Malone ' the plots Garrick laid for
1 Come, Sir, let's have no more of merriment,' and how one of them
it. We offended one another by our so utterly failed that, having -Fox,
contention ; let us not offend the Burke, Gibbon, Sheridan, Beauclerc,
company by our compliments.' Ib. and Reynolds as his guests, he made
iv. 336. it ' one of the most vapid days they
2 'Malone said that Garrick always had ever spent.' Ib. p. 417.
took care to leave company with a 'That "artifice" of his has left
good impression in his favour. After such an impression in the theatre,
he had told some good story, or that the phrase "as deep as Garrick"
defeated an antagonist by wit or is still current stage slang.' Leslie
raillery, he often disappointed people and Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 219.
who hoped that he would continue 3 Johnson says of Pope : — ' Next
to entertain them. But he was so to the pleasure of contemplating his
artificial that he could break away possessions, seems to be that of
in the midst of the highest festivity, enumerating the men of high rank
merely in order to secure the im- with whom he was acquainted.'
pression he had made. On this part Works, viii. 313. ' His scorn of the
of his character it was well said by great is too often repeated to be real ;
Colman, that he never came into no man thinks much of that which
company without laying a plot for an he despises.' Ib. p. 316.
man's
246 Two Dialogues by
man's wish, can be no reproach to Garrick ; he who says he
despises it knows he lies x. That Garrick husbanded his fame,
the fame which he had justly acquired both at the theatre and
at the table, is not denied ; but where is the blame, either in the
one or the other, of leaving as little as he could to chance?
Besides, Sir, consider what you have said ; you first deny
Garrick's pretensions to fame, and then accuse him of too great
an attention to preserve what he never possessed.
GIB. I don't understand — —
JOHNS. Sir, I can't help that 2.
GlB. Well, but Dr. Johnson, you will not vindicate him in his
over and above attention to his fame, his inordinate desire to
exhibit himself to new men, like a coquette, ever seeking
after new conquests, to the total neglect of old friends and
admirers ; —
* He threw off his friends like a huntsman his pack V
always looking out for new game.
JOHNS. When you quoted the line from Goldsmith, you
ought, in fairness, to have given what followed : —
' He knew when he pleased he could whistle them back ; '
which implies at least that he possessed a power over other
men's minds approaching to fascination ; but consider, Sir, what
is to be done : here is a man whom every other man desired to
know. Garrick could not receive and cultivate all, according to
each man's conception of his own value : we are all apt enough
to consider ourselves as possessing a right to be excepted from
the common crowd ; besides, Sir, I do not see why that should
1 ' When Johnson thought there Swinburne's Study of Ben Jonson,
was intentional falsehood in the re- p. 175.
lator his expression was, " He lies, * A man who speaks audibly and
and he knows he lies." ' Life, iv. 49. intelligibly is not to be blamed for
2 ' Sir, I have found you an argu- not being heard ; nobody being
ment ; but I am not obliged to find bound to find words and ears too.'
you an understanding.' Ib. iv. 313. South's Sermons, iii. 229.
* Intelligibilia, non intellectum ad- 3 'He cast off his friends as a
fero? Preface to Coleridge's Poems, huntsman his pack,
ed. 1859, p. 19. For he knew when he pleased
' I must neither find them ears he could whistle them back.'
nor mind.' Ben Jonson, quoted in Retaliation.
be
Sir Joshua Reynolds. 247
be imputed to him as a crime, which we all so irresistibly feel
and practise ; we all make a greater exertion in the presence
of new men than old acquaintance ; it is undoubtedly true that
Garrick divided his attention among so many, that but little
was left to the share of any individual x ; like the extension and
dissipation of water into dew, there was not quantity united
sufficiently to quench any m.an's thirst ; but this is the inevitable
state of things : Garrick, no more than another man, could unite
what, in their natures, are incompatible.
GIB. But Garrick not only was excluded by this means from
real friendship, but accused of treating those whom he called
friends with insincerity and double dealings.
JOHNS. Sir, it is not true ; his character in that respect is
misunderstood: Garrick was, to be sure, very ready in promising,
but he intended at that time to fulfil his promise ; he intended
no deceit ; his politeness or his good-nature, call it which you
will, made him unwilling to deny ; he wanted the courage to say
No, even to unreasonable demands. This was the great error of
his life : by raising expectations which he did not, perhaps could
not, gratify, he made many enemies ; at the same time it must
be remembered, that this error proceeded from the same cause
which produced many of his virtues. Friendships from want of
temper too suddenly taken up, and too violent to continue,
ended as they were like to do, in disappointment ; enmity suc
ceeded disappointment ; his friends became his enemies ; and
those having been fostered in his bosom, well knew his sensibility
to reproach, and they took care that he should be amply sup
plied with such bitter potions as they were capable of adminis
tering ; their impotent efforts he ought to have despised, but he
felt them ; nor did he affect insensibility.
GIB. And that sensibility probably shortened his life.
JOHNS. No, Sir, he died of a disorder of which you or any
1 ' I mentioned that Mr. Wilkes had no man to whom he wished to
had attacked Garrick to me, as a unbosom himself. He found people
man who had no friend. JOHNSON, always ready to applaud him, and
" I believe he is right, Sir— w <6i'Aot, that always for the same thing : so
ou <f>i\os— He had friends, but no he saw life with great uniformity." *
friend. Garrick was so diffused, he Life, iii. 386.
other
248 Two Dialogues by
other man may die x, without being killed by too much sensi
bility.
GIB. But you will allow, however, that this sensibility, those
fine feelings, made him the great actor he was.
JOHNS. This is all cant 2, fit only for kitchen wenches and
chambermaids : Garrick's trade was to represent passion, not to
feel it. Ask Reynolds whether he felt the distress of Count
Hugolino when he drew it 3.
GIB. But surely he feels the passion at the moment he is
representing it.
JOHNS. About as much as Punch feels 4. That Garrick him
self gave into this foppery of feelings I can easily believe ; but
he knew at the same time that he lied. He might think it
right, as far as I know, to have what fools imagined he ought to
have ; but it is amazing that any one should be so ignorant as
to think that an actor will risk his reputation by depending on
the feelings that shall be excited in the presence of two hundred
people, on the repetition of certain words which he has repeated
two hundred times before in what actors call their study 5. No,
Sir, Garrick left nothing to chance ; every gesture, every expres
sion of countenance, and variation of voice, was settled in his
closet before he set his foot upon the stage 6.
1 He died of a disease of the who believe yourself transformed into
kidneys. Murphy's Garrick, p. 472. the very character you. represent ? "
2 Ante, i. 161 n., 314 n. Upon Mr. Kemble's answering that
3 North cote says that either Burke he had never felt so strong a per-
or Goldsmith, seeing a head of a man suasion himself; "To be sure not,
in Reynolds's picture gallery, * ex- Sir, (said Johnson ;) the thing is im-
claimed that it struck him as being possible. And if Garrick really be-
the precise person, countenance and lieved himself to be that monster,
expression of the Count Ugolino as Richard the Third, he deserved to
described by Dante in his Inferno! be hanged every time he performed
Reynolds had not had Ugolino in it."' Life, iv. 243. See also ib. v.
his thoughts when he drew the head. 46. Mrs. Pritchard, who was, said
Northcote's Reynolds, i. 279. Johnson, ' a very good player ' (Life,
4 'Punch has no feelings.' Ante, v. 126); 'the surprising versatility
i. 457. of whose talents ' Gibbon mentions
5 Study in this sense is not in (Misc. Works, i. 155); 'who was
Johnson's Dictionary. celebrated in Lady Macbeth, owned
6 ' " Are you, Sir, (said Johnson to that she knew no more of that play
Kemble) one of those enthusiasts than what was written for her by the
prompter
Sir Joshua Reynolds.
249
prompter.' Prior's M alone, p. 354.
Goethe speaking of the theatre at
Weimar said : — * An actor's whole
profession requires continual self-
denial, and a continual existence in
a foreign mask. ... If an actor ap
peared to me of too fiery a nature,
I gave him phlegmatic characters ;
if too calm and tedious, I gave him
fiery and hasty characters, that he
might thus learn to lay aside him
self, and assume foreign individuality.'
Eckermann's Conversations of Goethe,
i. 228-9. For Diderot's opinion, see
Life, iv. 244, n. I.
In the Early Diary of Frances
Btcrney, ii. 158, we have the follow
ing instance of the two ways in which
Johnson spoke of Garrick : — * "They
say," cried Mrs. Thrale, " that Garrick
was extremely hurt at the coldness
of the King's applause, and did not
find his reception such as he ex
pected." " He has been so long
accustomed," said Mr. Seward, " to
the thundering approbation of the
Theatre, that a mere ' Very well,'
must necessarily and naturally dis
appoint him." " Sir," said Dr. John
son, "he should not, in a Royal
apartment, expect the hallowing and
clamour of the One Shilling Gallery.
The King, I doubt not, gave him as
much applause, as was rationally his
due; and, indeed, great and un
common as is the merit of Mr.
Garrick, no man will be bold enough
to assert he has not had his just pro
portion both of fame and profit. He
has long reigned the unequalled
favourite of the public ; and there
fore nobody will mourn his hard fate,
if the King and the Royal Family
were not transported into rapture,
upon hearing him read Lethe. Yet
Mr. Garrick will complain to his
friends, and his friends will lament
the King's want of feeling and taste ;
— and then Mr. Garrick will kindly
excuse the King. He will say that
His Majesty might be thinking of
something else ; that the affairs of
America might occur to him ; or
some subject of more importance
than Lethe ; but, though he will say
this himself, he will not forgive his
friends if they do not contradict " !
But, now that I have written this
satire, it is but just both to Mr.
Garrick and to Dr. Johnson, to tell
you what he said of him afterwards,
when he discriminated his character
with equal candour and humour.
" Garrick," he said, " is accused of
vanity; but few men would have1
borne such unremitting prosperity
with greater, if with equal modera
tion. He is accused, too, of avarice ;
but, were he not, he would be ac
cused of just the contrary ; for he
now lives rather as a prince than an
actor ; but the frugality he practised,
when he first appeared in the world,
and which even then was perhaps
beyond his necessity, has marked
his character ever since ; and now,
though his table, his equipage, and
manner of living are all the most
expensive, and equal to those of a
nobleman, yet the original stain still
blots his name ! Though, had he
not fixed upon himself the charge of
avarice, he would long since have
been reproached with luxury, and
with living beyond his station in
magnificence and splendour." '
RECOLLECTIONS OF DR. JOHNSON
BY MISS REYNOLDS
[THESE Recollections were published by Mr. Croker from
some MSS. in Miss Reynolds's handwriting, communicated
to him by the Rev. John Palmer, grandson of Sir Joshua
Reynolds's sister Mary, who married John Palmer of Torrington.
They have been kindly lent me by their present owner, Lady
Colomb of Dronquinna, Kenmare, the Rev. John Palmer's
granddaughter. One set is tolerably complete ; the other is
made up of at least two, and probably three, versions. It was
clearly with a view to publication that Miss Reynolds revised
and rewrote her Recollections. On one page, where she gives
Johnson's poem on Levett, she says : — ' I think I may be
excused for publishing it, tho' it has already appear'd in print, if
only because Dr. Johnson gave it to me .with his own hand V
No doubt at the last her courage failed her, as it had failed her
earlier in the case of the poems and essays which she had
thought of printing (post, p. 279), and her Recollections were
confined to her desk. It was all in vain that Boswell had
tried to get from her the letters which she had received from
Johnson. ' I am sorry,' he wrote, ' that her too nice delicacy
will not permit them to be published.' (Life, i. 486, n. i).]
THE first time I was in company with Dr. Johnson I remember
1 In this version in the line, she writes, 'No summons shock'd,'
' No summons mock'd by chill &c.
delay/
the
Recollections of Dr. Johnson by Miss Reynolds. 251
the impression I felt in his favour, on his saying that as he
return'd to his lodgings about one or two o'clock in the
morning, he often saw poor children asleep on thresholds and
stalls, and that he used to put pennies I into their hands to buy
them a breakfast.
And at the first interview which was at that lady's house to
whom he address'd his galant [sic] letter2 was, as I well
remember, the flattering notice he took of a lady present, on her
saying that she was inclined to estimate the morality of every
person according as they liked or disliked Clarissa Harlowe.
He was a great admirer of Richardson's works in general, but of
Clarissa he always spoke with the highest enthusiastic praise.
He used to say, that it was the first Book in the world for the
knowledge it displays of the human Heart 3. Yet of the Author
I never heard him speak with any degree of cordiality, but
rather as if impress'd with some cause of resentment against
him 4 ; and this has been imputed to something of jealousy, not
to say envy, on account of Richardson's having engross'd
the attentions and affectionate assiduities of several very in
genious literary ladies, whom he used to call his addopted [sic]
daughters, and for whom Dr. Johnson had conceived a paternal
affection (particularly for two of them, Miss Carter 5 and Miss
Mulso 6, now Mrs. Chapone), previous to their acquaintance with
: 'Dr. Johnson's own expression.' to controvert his opinions; and that
Miss REYNOLDS. his desire of distinction was so great,
2 ' At the end of the second vol. of that he used to give large vails to the
Dr. Johnson's Letters to Mrs.Thrale.' Speaker Onslow's servants, that they
MISS REYNOLDS. 'The lady was might treat him with respect.' Life,
Miss Cotterell.' Letters, i. 43. v. 395. See also ib. p. 396, n. i, and
3 ' Sir, there is more knowledge of ante, i. 273.
the heart in one letter of Richardson's 5 Miss Carter was only eight years
tha.nma.ll Tom Jones.' Life,\\. 174. See younger than Johnson, so that the
also ante, ii. 190, and Letters, i. 21. affection was scarcely paternal. For
4 At Edinburgh he said of Richard- her puddings and her Greek see
son that * his perpetual study was ante, ii. 1 1 .
to ward off petty inconveniences and 6 Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale :—
procure petty pleasures ; that his * You make verses, and they are read
love of continual superiority was in publick, and I know nothing about
such, that he took care to be always them. This very crime, I think,
surrounded by women, who listened broke the link of amity between
to him implicitly, and did not venture Richardson and Miss M— , after a
Richardson
252 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
Richardson ; and it was said, that he thought himself neglected
by them on his account.
Johnson set a higher value upon female friendship than,
perhaps, most men ; which may reasonably be supposed was
not a little inhanced \sic\ by his acquaintance with those Ladies,
if it was not originally derived from them. To their society,
doubtless, Richardson owed that delicacy of sentiment, that femi
nine excellence, as I may say, that so peculiarly distinguishes
his writings from those of his own sex in general, how high soever
they may soar above the other in the more dignified walks of
literature, in scientific investigations, and abstruse inquiries.
Dr. Johnson used to repeat, with very apparent delight, some
lines of a poem written by one of these ladies J : —
Say, Stella, what is Love, whose cruel power
Robs virtue of content, and youth of joy ?
What Nymph or Goddess, in what fatal hour,
Produced to light the mischief-making Boy?
Some say, by Idleness and Pleasure bred,
The smiling babe on beds of roses lay ;
There with soft-honied dews by Fancy fed,
His infant Beauties open'd on the Day2.
Dr. Johnson had a [sic] uncommonly retentive memory for
every thing that appear'd to him worthy of observation. What
ever he met with in reading, particularly poetry, I believe he
seldom required a revisal to be able to repeat verbatim3. If
not literally so, it was more honoured in the breach than in the
observance. And this was the case, in some respects, in Shen-
tenderness and confidence of many ' Say, Stella, what is love, whose
years.' Letters, ii. 141. Miss M — fatal pow'r
was, no doubt, Miss Mulso. She Robs virtue of content and youth
wrote ' four billets ' in the Rambler, of joy ?
No. 10. Life, i. 203. What nymph or goddess in a luck-
1 Miss Mulso. Miss REYNOLDS. less hour
2 ' Johnson paid the first of these Disclos'd to light the mischief-
stanzas the great and undeserved making boy ? '
compliment of quoting it in his Die- Though Miss Mulso was but
tionary, under the word Quatrain? twenty-eight when the Dictionary
CROKER. was published, she was already
The stanza as there quoted is complimented with the title of
somewhat better; it is likely that Mrs. Mulso.
Johnson improved it. 3 Ante, i. 360 ; Life, i. 39 ; v. 368.
stone's
by Miss Reynolds. 253
stone's poem of The Inn, which I learnt from hearing Dr. Johnson
repeat it ; and I was surprised, on Seeing it lately among the
Author's works for the first time, to find it so different. The
alterations are in italics x.
To thee, fair Freedom, I retire,
From flattery, feasting*, dice and din ;
Now art thou found in Domes much* higher
Than the low Cot or humble Inn.
'Tis here with boundless power I reign,
And every Health that I begin,
Brightens dull Port to gay Champaigne4
For Freedom crowns it at an Inn.
I fly from pomp, I fly from plate,
I fly from falsehood's specious grin ;
Freedom I love, and form I hate,
And chuse my lodgings at an Inn.
Here, Waiter, take my sordid ore,
Which lacquays else might hope to win ;
It buys what Courts have not in store,
It buys me freedom at an Inn.
And once again I shape my way.
Through rain, through shine, through thick and thin,
Secure to meet at close of Day
A kind reception at an Inn 5.
You who have travell'd Life's dull Round,
Who through its various Tours have been,
May sigh to think how oft you 've found
The warmest welcome at an Inn 6.
1 Johnson for the most part quoted which has yet been contrived by
the poem as it was originally pub- man, by which so much happiness
lished in Dodsley's Collection, 1758, is produced as by a good tavern or
v. 51. Miss Reynolds saw it as it inn." He then repeated, with great
was given in Shenstone's Works, emotion, Shenstone's lines : —
1791,1.218. "Whoe'er has travell'd life's dull
3 Cards and dice. round,
3 In mansions higher. Where'er his stages may have
4 In Shenstone, ' Converts dull been,
port to bright champagne.' May sigh to think he still has
5 ' Spoken by Dr. Johnson extern- found
temporary.' Miss REYNOLDS. This The warmest welcome at an inn."
verse with slight differences is in the Life, ii. 452. See ib. n. for the stanza
original poem. as it originally stood.
6 '"No, Sir; there is nothing 'March 3, 1831. "Those are
Dr.
254 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
Dr. Johnson commonly read with amazing rapidity, glancing
his eye from the top to the bottom of the page in an instant *.
If he made any pause, it was a compliment to the work ; and,
after seesawing over it 2 a few minutes, generally repeated the
passage, especially if it was poetry. One day, on taking up
Pope's Essay on Man, a particular passage seem'd more than
ordinarily to engage his attention ; and so much, indeed, that,
contrary to his usual custom, after he had left the Book and the
place where he was sitting, he return'd to revise it, turning over
the pages with anxiety to find it, and then repeated —
Passions, tho' selfish, if their means be fair
List under Reason, and deserve her care ;
Those that, imparted, court a nobler aim,
Exalt their kind, and take some virtue's name3.
His task, probably, was the whole paragraph, but these lines
only were audible.
He seemed much to delight in reciting verses, particularly
from Pope. Among the many I have had the pleasure of hearing
him recite, the conclusion of the Dunciad and his Epistle to
Jervas, seemed to clairn his highest admiration : —
Led by some rule that guides, but not constrains,
And finish'd more through happiness than pains4,
he used to remark, was a union that constituted the ultimate
degree of excellence in the fine arts.
Two lines from Pope's Universal Prayer I have heard him
quote, in very serious conversation, as his theological creed : —
And binding Nature fast in fate,
Left free the human will5.
Mr. Baretti used to remark, with a smile, that Dr. Johnson
most fortunate (said Goethe) who seizing at once what was valuable in
live in tents, or who, like some Eng- any book without submitting to the
lishmen, are always going from one labour of perusing it from beginning
city and one inn to another, and find to end.' Life, i. 71.
everywhere a good table ready." ' 2 Ante, ii. 142.
Eckermann's Conversations of 3 Essay on Man, ii. 97.
Goethe, 1850, ii. 360. 4 Epistle to Mr.Jervas, 1. 67.
1 ' He had a peculiar facility in 5 Ante, ii. 233.
always
by Miss Reynolds. 255
always talked his best to the ladies. But, indeed, that was his
usual custom to every person who would furnish him with a
subject worthy of his discussion J ; for, what was very singular in
him, he would rarely, if ever, begin any subject himself, but
/ would sit silent till something was particularly addressed to him 2,
l and if that happened to lead to any scientific or moral inquiry,
\ his benevolence, I believe, more immediately prompted him to
\ expatiate on it for the edification of the ignorant than from any
other motive whatever.
One day, on a lady's telling him that she had read Parnell's
Hermit with dissatisfaction, for she could not help thinking that
thieves and murderers, who were such immediate ministers from
heaven of good to man, did not deserve such punishments as our
laws inflict3, Dr. Johnson made such an eloquent oration, and
with such energy, as indeed afforded a most striking instance
of the truth of Baretti's observation, but of which, to my great
regret, I can give no corroborating proof, my memory furnishing
me with nothing more than barely the general tendency of his
arguments, which were to prove, that though it might be said
that wicked men, as well as the good, were ministers of God,
because in the moral sphere the good we enjoy and the evil We
suffer are administered to us by man, yet, as infinite goodness
could not inspire or influence man to act wickedly, but, on the
contrary, it was his divine property to produce good out of evil,
and as man was endowed with free-will to act, or refrain from
1 Speaking of his talk 'he told . . . 'through all depends
Sir Joshua that he had early laid it On using second means to work
down as a fixed rule to do his best his ends,'
on every occasion.' Life, i. 204. See and shows that out of each one of these
ib. iii. 193, n. 3, for 'his phrase, 'strange events 'good came. The lady,
" they talked their best." ' applying this pious fable, said that
2 Ante, i. 289. thieves and murderers who are but
3 In Parnell's poem an angel, dis- ' second means ' are hardly dealt with
guised as a youth, in the hermit's when they were sent to the gallows,
sight steals a golden goblet from She ought, after seeing them hanged
a generous but too lavish host ; at Tyburn, to have stifled her doubts,
gives it to a miser ; strangles a vir- and to have imitated the hermit, who
tuous man's only child, and drowns . . . ' gladly turning sought his
a servant who is guiding them ancient place,
across a river. He explains how And pass'd a life of piety and
Providence peace.'
acting
256
Recollections of Dr. Johnson
acting wickedly, with knowledge of good and evil, with conscience
to admonish and to direct him to chuse the one and reject the
other, he was, therefore, as criminal in the sight of God and oi
man, and as deserving punishment for his evil deeds, as if no
good had resulted from them x.
There was nothing Dr. Johnson used to say of which he was
so certain as of the freedom of his will, and no man, I believe,
was ever more attentive to preserve its rectitude, its acquired
rectitude, I suppose I should say, in conformity with his religious
tenets respecting original sin, and with his more general and
common assertions that Man was by Nature much more inclined
to evil than to good 2.
And another Axiom of his of the same gloomy tendency was
that the pain and miseries of human life far outweighed its
happiness and good 3. But on a lady's asking him whether he
would not permit common ease to be put into the scale of
happiness and good, he seem'd embarrassed (very unusual with
him) and answering in the affirmative, instantly rose from his
seat to avoid the inference.
But, indeed, much may be said in Dr. Johnson's justification,
supposing these notions should not meet with universal approba
tion, having, it is probable, imbibed them in the early part of his
life, when under the pressure of adverse fortune, and in every
period of it under the still heavier pressure and more adverse
1 ' JOHNSON. " Moral evil is oc
casioned by free will, which implies
choice between good and evil. With
all the evil that there is, there is no
man but would rather be a free
agent, than a mere machine without
the evil ; and what is best for each
individual, must be best for the
whole. If a man would rather be
the machine, I cannot argue with
him. He is a different being from
me.'" Life, v. 117. See also ib.
v. 366, and ante, ii. 233.
2 ' This may appear rather incon
sistent with his notions of free-will,
but I will write the truth and nothing
but the truth.' Miss REYNOLDS.
See ante, i. 268 n., where Lady
M'Leod starting at what Johnson
maintained said, " This is worse than
Swift." '
3 ' From the subject of death we
passed to discourse of life, whether
it was upon the whole more happy
or miserable. Johnson was de
cidedly for the balance of misery,'
Life, iv. 300. But see post, p. 360,
where 'he asserted that no man
could pronounce he did not feei more
pleasure than misery.'
Swift wrote : — ' The miseries of
man are all beaten out on his own
anvil.' Swift's Works, ed. 1803,
XV. II.
influence
by Miss Reynolds. 257
influence of Nature herself. For I have often heard him lament
that he inherited from his Father a morbid disposition both of
Body and Mind x. An oppressive melancholy which robb'd him
of the common enjoyment of life2.
Indeed, he seemed to struggle almost incessantly with some
mental evil, and often, by the expression of his countenance and
the motion of his lips, appeared to be offering up some ejaculation
to Heaven to remove it. But in Lent, or near the approach of
any great festival, he would generally retire from the company
to a corner of the room, but most commonly behind a window-
curtain, to pray, and with such energy, and in so loud a whisper,
that every word was heard distinctly, particularly the Lord's
Prayer and the Apostles' Creed, with which he constantly con
cluded his devotions. Sometimes some words would emphatically
escape him in his usual tone of voice 3.
At these holy seasons he usually secluded himself more from
society than at other times, at least from general and mixed
society, and on a gentleman's sending him an invitation to dinner
on Easter-eve he was highly offended, and expressed himself so
in his answer4.
On every occasion that had the least tendency to depreciate
Religion or morality, he totally disregarded all forms or rules of
good-breeding, as utterly unworthy of the slightest consideration.
But it must be confess'd, that he sometimes suffered this noble
principle to transgress its due bounds, and to degenerate into
prejudices unworthy of his character, extending even to those who
were anywise connected with the person who had offended him.
One day, the Brother of a gentleman 5 for whom Dr. Johnson
1 'I inherited (said he) a vile self offended. Letters,]., 188. There
melancholy from my father, which has is nothing to show that he kept any
made me mad all my life, at least part of Lent but Passion Week, and
not sober.' Life, v. 215 ; ante, i. 148. even that he did not always keep
2 This last paragraph was originally strictly. Ante, i. 82. See Life, iv.
written ' terrifying melancholy, which 89, for « the admirable sophistry '
he was sometimes apprehensive bor- of his defence for twice dining at
dered on insanity.' a Bishop's in that week.
3 Ante, i. 439; Life, i. 483. 5 The two men were Israel and
4 With the Rev. Dr. Taylor, who John Wilkes. Israel Wilkes settled
invited him to dinner on the last in New York. Almon's Memoirs of
day of Lent, he did not show him- John Wilkes, i. 3.
VOL. II. S had
258 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
had conceived some disgust, (chiefly I believe for his political
principles) happening to meet him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's
(Mr. Reynolds then) in company with some gentlemen and ladies
of very distinguished characters (I remember Garrick was one,
by a remarkable expression of his to a Lady present, that indi
cated very uneasy apprehensions that the attention of the ladies
to him would provoke Johnson to say something rude to him).
As this gentleman was giving his opinion on the subject of their
discourse, Mr. Johnson stop'd him with ' pray, Sir, what you are
going to say, let it be better worth the hearing than what you
have already said.' Which seem'd to give a shock, and to spread
a gloom over the whole Party, particularly because this gentle
man was of a most amiable character, a man of refined Taste,
and a scholar, and what Mr. Johnson little suspected, a very
loyal subject.
He afterwards told the Lady of the House J, that he was very
sorry that he should have snubbed W. as he did, because his wife
was present. ' Yes, Sir ; and for many reasons/ * No, it is only
because his wife was present that I am sorry.'
But this was mild treatment in comparison of what a gentle
man2 met with from him one day at Sir Joshua Reynolds's,
a barrister at law and a man of fashion, who, on discoursing with
Mr. Johnson on the laws and government of different nations,
I remember particularly those of Venice, on being inadvertently
prompted to speak of them in terms of high approbation : ' Yes,
Sir,' says Johnson, ' all Republican Rascals think as you do V
How the conversation ended I have forgot, it was so many years
ago ; I believe he never made any apology for the insult either
to the gentleman or any other person ; luckily there were but
two others present.
1 Miss Reynolds. attracted by the Doctor exclaiming
a Mr. Eliot. Miss REYNOLDS. in a very loud and peremptory tone
3 Northcote, who had the anec- of voice, " Yes, Sir, &c." ' North-
dote from Miss Reynolds, describes cote's Reynolds,, i. 23.
* the young gentleman ' as ' humbly To his friend Windham Johnson
making his inquiries to gain all said, ' with a pleasant smile, " Don't
possible information from the pro- be afraid, Sir, you will soon make
found knowledge of Dr. Johnson, a very pretty rascal." ' Life, iv.
when her attention was suddenly 200.
Of
by Miss Reynolds.
259
Of latter years he grew much more companionable, anc} I have
icard him say, that he knew himself to be so. ' In my younger
days,' he would say, ' it is true I was much inclined to treat man
kind with asperity and contempt ; but I found it answered no
good end. I thought it wiser and better to take the world as it
goes. Besides, as I have advanced in life I have had more reason
kto be satisfied with it. Mankind have treated me with more
^ndness, and of course I have more kindness for them I.'
[n the latter part of his life, indeed, his circumstances were
:ry different from what they were in the beginning. Before he
id the Pension, he literally drest like a Beggar ; and from what
have been told, literally lived as such2; at least respecting
cor^mon conveniences in his apartments, wanting even a chair to
sit on3, particularly in his study, where a gentleman who fre
quently visited him whilst writing his Idlers always found him
at his Desk, sitting on one with three legs ; and on rising from
it, he remark'd that Mr. Johnson never forgot its defect, but
would either hold it in his hand or place it with great composure
against some support, taking no notice of its imperfection to his
visitor. How he sat, whether on the window-seat, on a chair, or
on a pile of Folios, or how he sat, I do not remember to have
heard4.
1 ' I never have sought the world ;
the world was not to seek me. It
is rather wonderful that so much has
been done for me.' Life, iv. 172.
* The world is not so unjust or un
kind as it is peevishly represented.'
Letters, ii. 215. See also ante, ii. 244.
2 Even for some time after he re
ceived his pension 'his apartment
and furniture and morning dress were
sufficiently uncouth.' Life, i. 396.
See also ante, ii. 141, for his decent
drawing-room at a later period. How
unlike he was in this to Swift, who
* seems to have wasted life in dis
content by the rage of neglected
pride and the languishment of un
satisfied desire. He is querulous
and fastidious, arrogant and malig
nant : he scarcely speaks of himself
but with indignant lamentations.'
Works, viii. 225.
3 In a note in the Life, i. 328,
I say, 'there can be little question
that she is describing the same room
[as that described by Mr. Burney in
Gough Square] — a room in a house
in which Miss Williams was lodged,
and most likely Mr. Levet.' I may
be mistaken ; for when he was writing
the Idler he was living not only in
Gough Square, but also in Staple
Inn and Gray's Inn, and perhaps in
Inner Temple Lane. In none of
these places did Miss Williams lodge.
See Life, i. 350, n. 3, and ante, ii.
1 1 6. It is absurd to suppose that
he had no chairs in his sitting-room.
4 ' After dinner, Mr. Johnson pro
posed to Mr. Burney to go up with
2 It
\/
260 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
It was remarkable in Dr. Johnson that no external circum
stances ever prompted him to make any apology, or to seem
even sensible of their existence. Whether this was the effect of
Philosophic pride, or of some partial notion respecting high
breeding is doubtful x.
It is very certain that he piqued himself much upon his know
ledge of the rules of true politeness, and particularly on his most
punctilious observances of them towards the ladies. A remark
able instance of this was his never suffering any lady to walk
from his house to her carriage, through Bolt Court, unattended
by himself to hand her into it (at least I have reason to suppose
it to be his general custom, from his constant performance of it
to those with whom he was the most intimately acquainted) ; and
if any obstacle prevented it from driving off, there he would
stand by the door of it, and gather a mob around him. Indeed
they would begin to gather the moment he appear'd handing the
lady .down the steps into Fleet Street. But to describe his ap
pearance, his important air (that indeed cannot be described) but
his morning Habiliments, from head to foot, would excite the
utmost astonishment in my reader, how a man in his senses could
think of steping [sic] outside his door in them, or even to be
seen at home in them. Sometimes he exhibited himself at the
distance of eight or ten doors distant from Bolt Court, to get at
the carriage, to the no small diversion of the populace 2.
And I am certain to all who love laughing a description of his
dress from head to foot would be highly acceptable, and in
general, I believe, be thought the most curious part of my Book.
But I forbear, merely out of respect to his memory, to give the
him into his garret, which being she should have found her in a better
accepted, he there found about five manner." The parson made no apo-
or six Greek folios, a deal writing- logics, though he was in his half-
desk, and a chair and a half. Johnson cassock, and a flannel night-cap,
giving to his guest the entire seat, He said they were heartily welcome
tottered himself on one with only to his poor cottage.' Joseph An-
three legs and one arm.' Life, i. 328. drews, Bk. iv. ch. 9.
1 ' Mrs. Adams said " she was 2 See Life, ii. 405, for Beauclerk's
ashamed to be seen in such a pickle, account of Johnson's ( doing the
and that her house was in such a honours of his literary residence to
litter ; but that if she had expected a foreign lady of quality,' and ante,
such an honour from her Ladyship, ii. 180.
slightest
by Miss Reynolds. 261
slightest intimation of it. For having written a minute descrip
tion of his Figure, from his wig to his slippers, a thought occurred
that it might probably excite some person to delineate it, and
I might have the mortification of seeing it hung up at a Print-
shop as the greatest curiosity ever exhibited.
His best dress was, at that time, so very mean, that one after
noon as he was following some ladies up stairs, on a visit to
a lady of fashion *, the Housemaid, not knowing him, suddenly
seized him by the shoulder, and exclaimed, ' Where are you
going ? ' striving at the same time to drag him back ; but a
gentleman who was a few steps behind prevented her from doing /
or saying more, and Mr. Johnson growled all the way up stairs, V
as well he might. He seemed much chagrined and apparently
disposed to revenge the insult of the maid upon the mistress.
Unluckily, whilst in this humour, a lady of high rank 2 happening
to call on Miss Cotterel, he was much offended with her for not
introducing him to her Ladyship, at least not in the manner he
liked, and still more for her seeming to shew more attention to
this Lady than to him. After sitting some time silent, meditating
how to down3 Miss C., he address'd himself to Mr. Reynolds, who
sat next him, and, after a few introductory words, with a loud
voice said, * I wonder which of us two could get most money by
his trade in one week, were we to work hard at it from morning
till night.' I don't remember the answer ; but I know that the
lady, rising soon after, went away without knowing what trade
they were of. She might probably suspect Mr. Johnson to be
a poor author by his dress, and because neither a Porter, a Chair
man, or a blacksmith, Trades much more suitable to his apparent
abilities, were not quite so suitable to the place she saw him in.
This incident Dr. Johnson used to mention with great glee — how
he had downed Miss C., though at the same time he professed
a great friendship and esteem for that lady.
1 Miss Cotterell. Life, i. 246. Duchess of Argyle.
See ib. n. 2 for Northcote's version 3 Johnson talking of Robertson
of this story. said :— ' I downed him with the King
2 Lady Fitzroy. Miss REYNOLDS. of Prussia.' Ib. iii. 335. He wrote
According to the account Sir Joshua to Mrs. Thrale : — ' Long live Mrs.
gave to Boswell there were two ladies G — that downs my mistress.' Letter sy
of high rank, one of whom was the ii. 73. See also ante, i. 169.
It
262
Recollections of Dr. Johnson
It is certain that, for such kind of mortifications, he never ex
press' d any concern ; but on other occasions he has shewn the
most amiable sorrow for the offence he has given T, particularly if
it seemed to involve the slightest disrespect to the church or to
its ministers 2.
I shall never forget with what regret he spoke of the rude
reply he made to a Revd Divine, a Dignitary of the Church 3,
on his saying that men never improved after the age of forty-five4.
' That is not true, Sir/ said Johnson. ' You, who perhaps are
forty-eight, may still improve if you will try ; I wish you would
set about it ; and I am afraid,5 he added, ' there is great room
for it 5 ; ' and this was said in rather a large Party of gentlemen
1 See ante, i. 453, where Murphy
says that 'when the fray was over
Johnson generally softened into re
pentance.' He wrote to Dr. Taylor
in 1756: — ' When I am musing
alone, I feel a pang for every
moment that any human being has
by my peevishness or obstinacy spent
in uneasiness.' Letters, i. 72. More
than twenty years later he said in
Miss Burney's hearing : — 'I am
always sorry when I make bitter
speeches, and I never do it but when
I am insufferably vexed.' Mme.
D'Arblay's Diary , i. 131.
2 Yet when some clergymen in his
company ' thought that they should
appear to advantage by assuming
the lax jollity of men of the world]
he said, * by no means in a whisper,
" This merriment of parsons is mighty
offensive." ' Life, iv. 76.
3 Dr. Barnard, Dean of Derry;
afterwards Bishop of Killaloe. Ib.
iii. 84; iv. 115. He is 'the good
Dean ' of Goldsmith's Retaliation,
'Who mix'd reason with pleasure
and wisdom with mirth.'
4 * Of this assertion (writes Miss
Edge worth) my father always doubted
the truth, and he opposed the prin
ciple, as injurious to the cause of
knowledge and virtue, and tending
to lessen the energy and happiness
of a large portion of human exist
ence.' Memoirs of R. L. Edgeworth,
ed. 1844, p. 476.
Swift seems to refer to this belief
when he makes the spot in the fore
head of every Struldbrug change
from time to time till he became five
and forty, when 'it never admitted
any further alteration.' Voyage to
Laputa, ch. x.
5 Boswell recorded in his note
book : — 'The Dean of Derry, Dr.
Barnard, was maintaining in 177-,
that a man never improves after
five-and-forty. Johnson very justly
took the opposite side. "Why
should not a man improve then,"
said he, "if he has the means
of improvement?" The Dean per
sisted in his errour. Johnson an
grily said, " I do not say but there
are some exceptions ; pray, Sir, how
old are you ?" The Dean was much
hurt ; came over it again and again
at the time, and afterwards wrote
the verses which ironically intro
duces [sic] Johnson's politeness. But
the Dean told me at the dinner of
the Royal Academicians, 23 April,
1776, that he had a very great re-
and
by Miss Reynolds.
263
and ladies at dinner. Soon after the ladies withdrew from the
table, Dr. Johnson follow'd them, and, sitting down by the Lady
of the House x, he said, ' I am very sorry for having spoken so
rudely to the .' ' You very well may, Sir.' ' Yes,' he said,
' it was highly improper to speak in that style to a minister of
the Gospel 2, and I am the more hurt on reflecting with what
mild dignity he received it.' When the came up into the
Drawing-Room, Dr. Johnson immediately rose from his seat,
and made him sit on the sophy [sic] by him, and with such
a beseeching look for pardon, and with such fond gestures —
literally smoothing down his arms and his knees — tokens of
penitence, which were so graciously received by the as
to make Dr. Johnson very happy, and not a little added to
the esteem and respect he had previously entertained for his
character 3.
The next morning the called on Sir Joshua Reynolds
spect for Johnson. "I love him,"
said he, " but he does not love me,"
and he complained of his rough,
harsh manners, saying that when he
smiled he showed the teeth at the
corner of his mouth, like a dog that
is going to bite. He said, "Johnson
is right ninety-nine times but of a
hundred ; I think with him." " But
you do not feel with him," said I.
" No," said the Dean. " In short,
he is not a gentleman." The Dean
told me he thought of answering
Gibbon, and would be glad to talk
with Johnson of it. When I came
to Bath Johnson said the Dean was
mistaken. He loved him very well,
though he disapproved of his being
out of place, by living so much
among wits, and being member of
a midnight club. (That was ours.)
He was pleased with his design of
answering Gibbon, and said he would
be glad to talk with him.' Morrison
Autographs, 2nd series, i. 371.
The ' midnight club ' was the Lite
rary Club. Barnard joined it in
December, 1775. I do not think he
answered Gibbon.
1 Miss Reynolds, if, as Richard
Burke says, the scene took place in
Sir Joshua's house. Burke Corres.
i. 403.
2 ' I asked Dr. Johnson if he did
not think the Dean of Derry a very
agreeable man, to which he made
no answer ; and on my repeating
my question, "Child," said he, "I
will not speak anything in favour of
a Sabbath-breaker, to please you,
nor any one else.' H. More's Me
moirs, i. 394.
Bishop Barnard (says Bentham)
was ' an unbeliever. I met him at
Owen Cambridge's, who had a house
of which he was very proud near
Pope's, at Twickenham. The Bishop
was much among the aristocracy —
a man of the world and a clever
man.' Bentham's Works^ x. 285.
3 Johnson said of him : — ' No man
ever paid more attention to another
than he has done to me.' Life, iv.
115.
with
264 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
with the following verses x, which I should not have taken the
liberty to insert, had I not known that they had already appear'd
in Print : —
I lately thought no man alive
Could ere improve past forty-five,
And ventured to assert it.
The observation was not new,
But seem'd to me so just and true
That none could controvert it.
* No, Sir,3 says Johnson, ' 'tis not so,
'Tis your mistake, and I can show
An instance, if you doubt it.
You, who perhaps are forty-eight,
May still improve, 'tis not too late :
I wish you'd set about it.'
Encouraged thus to mend my faults,
I turned his councel \sic\ in my thoughts
Which way I could apply it;
Genius I knew was past my reach,
For who can learn what none can teach ?
And wit — I could not buy it.
Then come, my friends, and try your skill;
You may improve me if you will,
(My Books are at a Distance) ;
With you I'll live and learn, and then
Instead of books I shall read men,
So lend me your assistance.
Pear knight of Plympton 2 teach me how
To suffer with unclouded Brow
And smile serene as thine,
The jest uncouth and truth severe;
Like thee to turn my deafest ear,
And calmly drink my wine.
Thou say'st not only skill is gain'd,
But genius, too, may be attain'd,
By studious application3;
Thy temper mild, thy genius fine,
I'll study till I make them mine
By constant meditation.
1 See Life, iv. 431, for various read- born at Plympton.
ings in these lines. 3 See ante, i. 314 n., and Life, ii.
2 Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was 437, n. 2.
Thy
by Miss Reynolds. 265
Thy art of pleasing teach me, Garrick,
Thou who reverest [reversest] odes Pindaric,
A second time read o'er x ;
Oh ! could we read thee backwards too,
Last thirty years thou should st review,
And charm us thirty more.
If I have thoughts and can't express 'em,
Gibbons [sz'f] shall teach me how to dress 'em
In terms select and terse ;
Jones teach me modesty and Greek 2 ;
Smith, how to think3; Burke, how to speak;
And Beauclerk to converse4.
Let Johnson teach me how to place
In fairest light each borrow'd Grace
From him I '11 learn to write :
Copy his free and easy style,
And from the roughness of his file
Grow, like himself, Polite.
Dr. Johnson's rude repulse given to a gentleman who ask'd
his leave to introduce the Abbe Raynal 5 to him, is I believe
too well known to need a repetition. Something similar to that
was his answer to a gentleman at the literary club, who, on
presenting his Friend, said, ' This, Sir, is Mr. V y 6.' ' I see
him,' said Dr. Johnson, and immediately turn'd away.
His reply to Dr. Grainger, who was reading his manuscript
Poem to him of the sugar-cane, will probably be thought more
excusable. When he came to the line, * Say, shall I sing of
Rats?' ' No,' cry'd Dr. Johnson with great vehemency. This
I 4
Mr. Cumberland has written an mouth's Life of Sir W. Jones, ed.
Ode, as he modestly calls it, in praise 1815, p. 465.
of Gray's Odes. . . . Garrick read it 3 Adam Smith. For his talk see
the other night at Mr. Beauclerk's, Life, iv. 24, n. 2.
who comprehended so little what it 4 Ante, i. 273, 469.
was about, that he desired Garrick All the men mentioned in these
to read it backwards, and try if it verses, as well as Barnard, were
would not be equally good ; he did, members of the Literary Club,
and it was.' Walpole's Letters, vi. 298. 5 See ante, i. 211.
2 Sir William Jones, who dying at 6 ' When Mr. Vesey was proposed
the age of forty- seven had 'studied as a member of the Literary Club
eight languages critically, eight less Mr. Burke began by saying that he
perfectly, but all intelligible with a was a man of gentle manners. "Sir,"
dictionary, and twelve least per- said Johnson, "you need say no
fectly, but all attainable.' Teign- more. When you have said a man
he
266 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
he related to me himself, laughing heartily at the conceit of
Dr. Grainger's refractory Muse ! Where it happen'd I do not
know, but I am certain, very certain, that it was not, as Mr.
Boswell asserts, at Sir Joshua Reynolds's1, for they were not,
I believe, even personally known to each other.
But some very beautiful lines out of another Poem, by the
same Author, I have often heard him repeat, and express great
admiration of them.
1 0 Solitude, romantick maid,
Whether by nodding towers you tread;
Or haunt the desert's trackless gloom,
Or hover o'er the yawning t.omb ;
Or climb the Andes' clifted side,
Or by the Nile's coy source abide ;
Or, starting from your half year's sleep,
From Hecla view the thawing deep ;
Or at the purple dawn of day,
Tadmor's marble waste survey2.'
I shall never forget the concordance of the sound of his
voice, with the grandeur of those images 3 ; nor indeed for the
same reason the gothick4 dignity of his Aspect, his look and
manner, when repeating sublime passages.
But what was very remarkable, though his cadence in reading
poetry was so judiciously emphatical as to give a double force
to the words he utter'd, yet in reading prose, particularly
common and familiar subjects, narrations, essays, letters, &c.,
nothing could be more injudicious than his manner, beginning
every period with a pompous accent, and reading it with a whine,
or with a kind of spasmodic struggle for utterance ; and this, not
from any natural infirmity, but from a strange singularity, in
of gentle manners you have said bourne, and observed : — ' This, Sir, is
enough.'" Life, iv. 28. very noble.' Id. iii. 197.
1 Life, ii. 453. See ib. ii. 454, n. 2, 3 After 'images' Miss Reynolds
where Johnson said: — 'Percy, Sir, had at first written : — ' Nor indeed for
was angry with me for laughing at The this same reason the sublime pleasure
Sugar-Cane ; for he had a mind to I have received on hearing him read
make a great thing of Grainger's some passages out of Homer.'
rats.' 4 She means, I think, 'the rude
2 He repeated these lines at Ash- dignity.' See ante, i. 478.
reading
by Miss Reynolds.
267
reading on, in one breath, as if he had made a resolution not to
respire till he had closed the sentence J.
Some lines also he used to repeat in his best manner, written
in memory of Bishop Boulter, which I believe are not much
known : —
' Some write their wrongs in marble : he, more just,
Stoop'd down serene and wrote them in the dust;
Trod under foot, the sport of every wind,
Swept from the earth, and blotted from his mind.
There, secret in the grave, he bade them lie,
And grieved they could not 'scape the Almighty's eye2.'
A lady, who had learnt them from Dr. Johnson, thought she
had made a mistake, or had forgotten some words, as she could
not make out a reference to the particle there> and mention'd
1 The following passage she has
scored out : — ' His sonorous voice,
so judiciously emphatical, the apost-
lick [sic] dignity of his aspect, his
look, his manner, when repeating any
sublime passages, either of poetry
or of prose, gave a double force to
the words he utter'd. But this indeed
can only be said of him when reading
grand or solemn subjects, for in read
ing common prose his manner, or
rather his tone of voice, was as dis
gusting as vice versa it was enchant
ing, proportionally so as the subject
was common and familiar, which all his
acquaintance must certainly remem
ber, especially if they ever heard him
read an [szc] newspaper, magazine,
letters,' &c.
For his reading poetry see ante,
i. 347, 45 7 , and Life, v. 1 1 5. When he
read a passage in The Spectator
Boswell recorded : — ' He read so well
that everything acquired additional
weight and grace from his utterance.'
Life, ii. 212.
2 From Boulter's Monument by
Samuel Madden. See ante, ii. 212,
for Johnson's castigation of that work.
Swift had found 'one comfortable
circumstance' in the appointment of
Boulter to the primacy. He would
be opposed to Wood's half-pence.
* Money,' he wrote, 'the great divider
of the world, has by a strange revo
lution been the great uniter of a most
divided people. Who would leave
a hundred pounds a year in England
(a country of freedom) to be paid
a thousand in Ireland out of Wood's
exchequer? The gentleman they
have lately made primate would never
quit his seat in an English House of
Lords and his preferments at Oxford
and Bristol, worth twelve hundred
pounds a year, for four times the
denomination here, but not half
the value.' Swift's Works, xii.
162. Hawkins writes : — ' Dr. Mad
den some years afterwards, being
mindful to republish the poem, sub
mitted it to Johnson's correction, and
I found among his books a copy of
the poem, with a note in a spare leaf
thereof, purporting that the author
had made him a visit, and for a very
few remarks and alterations of it had
presented him with ten guineas.
Hawkins, p. 391. In the British
Museum there are two copies of the
poem, one printed in Dublin and
one in London, both published the
it
268 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
it to him. No, he said, she had not, and, after seesawing a few
minutes, express'd some surprise that the defect should have
escaped his observation.
Sometime after he told the Lady that these lines were inserted
in the last edition of his Dictionary, under the word sport.
But I had reason to believe that he mistrusted they were not
a literal copy of the original J, as about this time I well remember
he express d great solicitude, and made much enquiry among
the Booksellers, to procure the printed poem ; whether he
succeeded or not I never heard.
v Of Goldsmith's Traveller he used to s'peak in terms of the
highest commendation2. A lady3 I remember, who had the
pleasure of hearing Dr. Johnson read it from end to end,
before it was publish'd just as it came out from the press, to
testify her admiration of it, exclaim'd, ' I never more shall think
Dr. Goldsmith ugly.' In having thought so, however, she was by
no means singular ; an instance of which I am rather inclined
to mention, because it involves a remarkable one of Dr. Johnson's
ready wit ; for this lady, one evening, being in a large Party,
was call'd upon after supper for her Toast, and seeming embar
rass' d, she was desired to give the uglest \sic\ man she knew ;
and she immediately named Dr. Goldsmith. On which a lady
on the other side of the Table rose up and reach' d across to
shake hands with her, expressing some desire of being better
acquainted with her, it being the first time they had met ; on
which Dr. Johnson said, ' Thus the Ancients, on the commence-
J ment of their Friendships, used to sacrifice a Beast betwixt them.'
same year, 1745. I have not dis- Dictionary Johnson gives it: — 'Some
covered any variations in the text, grave,' &c. He quoted it to Miss
No second edition is known of in Reynolds : — ' Some write.'
Ireland. If Hawkins's statement is 2 * He said of Goldsmith's Travel-
true, the poem, as corrected by ler, " There has not been so fine
Johnson, has never been printed, a poem since Pope's time."' Life,
In that case the corrected copy may ii. 5. See also ib. iii. 252. In the in
still be in existence. It seems, how- terval had been published Thomson's
ever, likely that Hawkins was mis- Castle of Indolence, his own Vanity
taken. of Human Wishes, and Gray's Elegy.
1 The first of these lines runs in 3 Mrs. Cholmondely. Miss REY-
the printed poem (p. 73) : — * Men NOLDS. For this lady see Life, iii.
grave their wrongs,' &c. In the 318, and ante, i. 451.
Sir
by Miss Reynolds. 269
Sir Joshua, I have often thought, never exhibited i a more
striking proof of his excellence in portrait-Painting, than in
giving Dignity to Dr. Goldsmith's countenance, and yet pre
serving a strong likeness1. For on the contrary his Aspect
from head to foot impress'd every one at first sight with an
idea of his being a low mechanic; particularly, I believe, a
journeyman tailor2. A little concurring instance of this I well
remember. One Day at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, in company with
some gentlemen and Ladies, he was relating how he had been
insulted by some gentlemen he had accidently met (I think
at a Coffee- House). l The fellow,' he said 'took me for a tailor!'
on which all the Party either laugh'd aloud or shew'd they
suppress'd a laugh 3.
This little anecdote of Goldsmith is similar to that which
Mr. Boswell relates of Johnson's having told him that a gentle- v
woman had offer'd him a shilling for handing her across a street.
But I thought it not a little surprising that he should add,
' No person would have believed this, if Johnson had not said
it himself4.'
Dr. Johnson seem'd to have much more kindness for Gold-
1 C. R. Leslie points out 'that the 3 In one of Miss Reynolds's manu-
ideal drapery of this portrait and the scripts the story is introduced as
view of the face almost exactly corre- follows : — ' Dr. Goldsmith was indeed
spond to the painter's treatment of very ugly, he had a vulgar mean
his very early portrait of his own aspect, more the look of a journey-
father.' Leslie and Taylor's Reynolds, man taylor from head to foot than
i. 361. any man I ever saw, which created
* I remember Miss Reynolds said a faugh throughout a pretty large
of this portrait that it was a very company of gentlemen and ladies, on
great likeness of the Doctor, but the his saying he had been insulted,' &c.
most nattered picture she ever knew 4 Miss Reynolds misunderstood
her brother to have painted.' North- Boswell, who wrote : — ' This, if told
cote's Reynolds, i. 326. by most people, would have been
2 * His person was short, his coun- thought an invention ; when told by
tenance coarse and vulgar, his deport- Johnson, it was believed by his friends
ment that of a scholar awkwardly as much as if they had seen what
affecting the easy gentleman.' Life, passed.3 Life, ii. 434. Boswell was
i. 413. 'His face,' says Dr. Percy, thinking of the improbability of such
< was marked with strong lines of a thing happening to any one. The
thinking. His first appearance was gentlewoman, it must be remembered,
not captivating.' Goldsmith's Misc. < was somewhat in liquor.'
Works, i. 117.
smith,
270
Recollections of Dr. Johnson
smith, than Goldsmith had for him x. He always appear'd to be
overawed by Johnson 2, particularly when in company with people
of any consequence, visibly as if impress'd with fear doubtless of
disgrace ; for I have been witness to many mortifications he has
suffer'd in his company: one Day in particular, at Sir Joshua
Reynolds's, a gentleman to whom he was talking his best stop'd
\sic\ him, in the midst of his discourse, with ' Hush ! hush !
Dr. Johnson is going to say something V
At another time, a gentleman who was sitting between Dr. John
son and Dr. Goldsmith, and with whom he had been disputing,
remarked to another, loud enough for Goldsmith to hear him,
' That he had a fine time of it, between Ursa Major and Ursa
Minor*!'
Dr. Johnson seem'd to delight in drawing characters ; and
when he [did so] con amore, delighted every one that heard him5.
Indeed, I cannot say I ever heard him draw any con odiare \sic\,
tho' he professed himself to be, or at least to love, a good
hater 6.
1 See, howeyer, Life, ii. 66, where
Goldsmith said : — ' Johnson, to be
sure, has a roughness in his manner ;
but no man alive has a more tender
heart. He has nothing of the bear
but his skin ' ; and ii. 256, where,
on Johnson asking his pardon, 'he
answered placidly, "It must be much
from you, Sir, that I take ill." '
2 ' Goldsmith could sometimes take
adventurous liberties with him, and
escape unpunished.' Ib. iv. 113.
3 Ib. ii. 257.
4 Boswell's father and Gray both
gave Johnson the name of Ursa
Major. Ib. v. 384. See ib. p. 97,
and ante, i. 270, where Johnson and
Goldsmith are distinguished by an
insolent fellow as Doctor Major and
Doctor Minor.
5 'BOSWELL. " His power of reason
ing is very strong, and he has a pecu
liar art of drawing characters, which
is as rare as good portrait painting."
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. "He is
undoubtedly admirable in this ; but,
in order to mark the characters which
he draws, he overcharges them, and
gives people more than they really
have, whether of good or bad." ' Life,
iii. 332. See also ii. 306 ; iii. 20.
6 Ante, i. 204. Iii one of her
MSS. Miss Reynolds continues: —
' But I have remarked that his dis
like of any one seldom prompted
him to say mucn more than that the
fellow is a blockhead, a poor creature,
or some such epithet.'
Speaking of Churchill he said : —
* No, Sir, I called the fellow a block
head at first, and I will call him a
blockhead still.' Life, i. 419. ' Field
ing being mentioned, Johnson ex
claimed, " he was a blockhead." ' Ib.
ii. 173. He told Hector's maid
servant that she was ' a blockhead,' to
Boswell's surprise, who ' never heard
the word applied to a woman before.'
Ib. ii. 456. Goldsmith called Sterne
1 a blockhead.' Ib. ii. I73> »• 2-
It
by Miss Reynolds. 271
It is much to be wish'd, in justice to Dr. Johnson's character,
that the many jocular and ironical speeches which have been
recorded of him had been mark'd as such, for the information
of those who were unacquainted with him, when not so ap
parently unlikely as the above is to be taken in a literal
sense. If he could conceive a hatred for any person, it was
only for the vicious.
I shall never forget the exalted character he drew of his
Friend Mr. Langton, nor with what energy, what fond delight
he expatiated in his praise, giving him every perfection that
could adorn humanity. Particularly, I remember, he dwelt on
his mental acquirements, as a Scholar, a Philosopher, and a
Divine, to which he added the finishing polish of the fine
Gentleman x. A literary Lady, Miss H. More, who was present
seem'd much struck with admiration, no!t only perhaps of the
excellence of Mr. Langton's character, but of Dr. Johnson's,
which appear'd. I thought, with redoubled lustre, reflected from
his luminous display of the virtues of his Friend.
This brings to my remembrance the unparallell'd eulogium
which the late Lord Bath 2 made on 3 (a lady he was
1 'We talked of Mr. Langton. ' Through Clouds of Passion P .. .'s
Johnson, with a warm vehemence of views are clear,
affectionate regard, exclaimed, " The He foams a Patriot to subside a
earth does not bear a worthier man Peer:
than Bennet Langton." ' Life, iii. 161. Impatient sees his country bought
See also ante, i. 182 n. and sold,
2 William Pulteney ; ' as a paltry Arid damns the market where he
fellow as could be,' Johnson called takes no gold.'
him. Life, v. 339. ' The legacies he .Warton's Pope's Works, iv. 347.
has left are triflihg,' wrote Chester- The eulogium of such a man was
field; 'for, in truth, he cared for worthless.
nobody; the words give and bequeath Mrs. Montagu, in her turn, puffed
were too shocking to him to repeat, him. ' His Lordship's talents,' she
and so he left all in one word to his wrote, ' like colours in the prism,
brother.' Chesterfield's Letters, iv. formed of the brightest rays, are so
210. Smollett said of his later well arranged and so happily mingled
years that 'he incurred the con- that, though strong and vivid, they
tempt or detestation of mankind, never pain the sight.' Letters of Mrs.
and remained a solitary monument Montagu, iv. 346.
of blasted ambition.' History of 3 ' I omit the initials of this Lady's
England, iii. 79. name, in compliance to her delicacy
intimately
272 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
intimately acquainted with.) in speaking of her to Sir Joshua
Reynolds. His lordship said, that ' he did not believe that
there was a more perfect human Being created ; or that there
ever would be created, than Mrs. .' I give the very words
I heard from Sir Joshua's own mouth, and from whom also
I heard that he repeated them to Mr. Burke ; and observing
that Lord Bath could not have said more, and ' I do not think
that he said too much,' was Mr. Burke's reply. I have also
heard Dr. Johnson speak of this Lady in terms of high admi
ration. ' Sir, that Lady exerts more mind in conversation than
any Person I ever met with : Sir, she displays such powers
of ratiocination, even radiations of intellectual excellence as
are amazing V
On the praises of Mrs. Thrale he used to dwell with a peculiar
delight, a paternal fondness, expressive of conscious exultation in
being so intimately acquainted with her2. One day, in speaking
of her to Mr. Harris, Author of Hermes3, and expatiating on
her various perfections, — the solidity of her virtues, the brilliancy
of her wit, and the strength of her understanding, &c. — he
quoted some lines, a stanza, I believe, but from what author I
know not, with whidn he concluded his most eloquent eulogium,
and of these I retain' d but the two last lines: —
' Virtues— of such a generous kind,
Good in the last recesses of the mind.3
Dr. Johnson had a most sincere and tender regard for Mrs.
Thr-le, and no wonder ; she would with much apparent affection
and in compliment to the discerning Horace Walpole wrote on May 27,
Public. 1775 (Letters, vi. 217):— 'The hus-
This note was written many years band of Mrs. Montagu of Shake-
before Mrs. Montagu's Decease, but speareshire is dead, and has left her
left uncancelled out of Respect to an estate of seven thousand pounds
her memory.' Miss REYNOLDS. a year in own power.' See ante,
1 For Johnson's high praise of her i. 287, 338, 351.
see Life, iv. 275. Of her pretentious 2 He wrote to her on her second
Essay on Shakespeare he said : — ' It marriage : — ' I who have loved you,
does her honour, but it would do esteemed you, reverenced you, and
nobody else honour.' He could not served you, I who long thought you
get through it. Ib. ii. 88 ; v. 245. the first of womankind,' £c. Letters,
Much of her reputation was no doubt ii. 406.
due to the splendid house she kept. 3 Ante, ii. 70.
overlook
by Miss Reynolds. 273
overlook his foibles. One Day at her own Table, before a large
company, he spoke so very roughly to her, that every person
present was surprised how she could bear it so placidly ; and
on the Ladies withdrawing, one of them express'd great astonish
ment how Dr. Johnson could speak in such harsh terms to herl
But to this she said no more than * Oh ! Dear good man ! '
This short reply appeared so strong a proof of her generous
virtues that the Lady took the first opportunity of commu
nicating it to him, repeating her own animadversion that had
occasion'd it. He seem d much delighted'1 with this intelligence,
and sometime after, as he was lying back in his Chair, seeming
to be half asleep, but more evidently musing on this pleasing
incident, he repeated in a loud whisper, ' Oh ! Dear good man I '
This was a common habit of his, when anything very flattering,
or very extraordinary ingross'd his thoughts, and I rather
wonder that none of his Biographers have taken any notice
of it, or of his praying in the same manner ; at least I do not
know that they have 2.
Nor has any one, I believe, described his extraordinary
gestures or anticks with his hands and feet, particularly when
passing over the threshold of a Door, or rather before he would
venture to pass through any doorway 3. On entering Sir Joshua's
house with poor Mrs. Williams, a blind lady who lived with him,
he would quit her hand, or else whirl her about on the steps
as he whirled and twisted about to perform his gesticulations ;
and as soon as he had finish'd, he would give a sudden spring,
and make such an extensive stride over the threshold, as if he
was trying for a wager how far he could stride, Mrs. Williams
standing groping about outside the door, unless the servant or
the mistress of the House more commonly took hold of her
1 Miss Reynolds had at first written, on Feb. 14, 1852: — ' Macaulay owns
instead of the words in italics : — to the feeling Dr. Johnson had, of
* Never shall I forget how delighted thinking oneself bound sometimes to
he seemed.' touch a particular rail or post, and
2 For his habit of talking to him- to tread always in the middle of the
self see ante, i. 439; ii. 216. paving stone. I certainly have had
3 For his touching the posts as he this very strongly.' Treveiyan's
walked along see Life, i. 485 n. Macaulay, ed. 1877, ii. 199.
Lord Carlisle recorded in his Diary
VOL. II. T hand
274 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
hand to conduct her in, leaving Dr. Johnson to perform at the
Parlour Door much the same exercise over again.
But the strange positions in which he would place his feet
(generally I think before he began his straddles, as if necessarily
preparatory) are scarcely credible. Sometimes he would make
the back part of his heels to touch, sometimes the extremity of
his toes, as if endeavouring to form a triangle, or some geo
metrical figure x, and as for his gestures with his hands, they
were equally as strange ; sometimes he would hold them up with
some of his fingers bent, as if he had been seized with the cramp,
and sometimes at his Breast in motion like those of a jockey on
full speed ; and often would he lift them up as high as he could
stretch over his head, for some minutes. But the manoeuvre
that used the most particularly to engage the attention of the
company was his stretching out his arm with a full cup of tea in
his hand, in every direction, often to the great annoyance of the
person who sat next him, indeed to the imminent danger of their
cloaths, perhaps of a Lady's Court dress ; sometimes he would
twist himself round with his face close to the back of his chair,
and finish his cup of tea, breathing very hard, as if making a
laborious effort to accomplish it.
What could have induced him to practise such extraordinary
gestures who can divine ! his head, his hands and his feet often in
motion at the same time. Many people have supposed that they
were the natural effects of a nervous disorder, but had that been
the case he could not have sat still when he chose, which he
did 2, and so still indeed when sitting for his picture, as often to
have been complimented with being a pattern for sitters3, no
1 In one of her manuscripts Miss duty; and what was Very extra-
Reynolds wrote :— ordinary, after he had quitted the
* Sometimes he would with great place, particularly at the entrance of
earnestness place his feet in a par- a door, he would return to the same
ticular position, sometimes making spot, evidently, I thought, from a
his heels to touch, sometimes his scruple of conscience, and perform it
toes, as if he was endeavouring to all over again.'
form a triangle, at least the two sides 2 Ante, ii. 222.
of one, and after having finish'd he 3 Reynolds's portrait of Johnson,
would beat his sides, or the skirts of which had belonged to Boswell, and
his coat, repeatedly with his hands, afterwards to his son James, was
as if for joy that he had done his sold on June 3, 1825, to Mr. Graves,
slight
by Miss Reynolds. 275
slight proof of his complaisance or his good-nature. I remember
a lady told him he sat like Patience on a monument smiling at
grief1, which made him laugh heartily at the ridiculous coinci
dence of the idea with his irksome situation ; for irksome it
doubtless was to him, restraining himself as he did, even from
his common and most habitual motion of seesawing, the more
difficult for him to effect because the most habitual.
It was not only at the entrance of a Door that he exhibited
his gigantick straddles but often in the middle of a Room, as if
trying to make the floor to shake ; and often in the street, even
with company, who would walk on at a little distance till he had
finished his ludicrous beat, for fear of being surrounded with a
mob ; and then he would hasten to join them, with an air of
great satisfaction, seeming totally unconscious of having com-
mited \stc] any impropriety.
I remember to have heard Sir Joshua Reynolds relate, that
being with Dr. Johnson at Dorchester on their way to Devonshire,
they went to see Corfe Castle. I believe that neither of them
was sufficiently known to Mr. Banks to introduce themselves as
visitors to him ; however that might be, he shewed them great
civility, politely attending them through the apartments, &c., in
the finest of which Dr. Johnson began to exhibit his Anticks,
stretching out his legs alternately as far as he could possibly
stretch ; at the same time pressing his foot on the floor as heavily
as he could possibly press, as if endeavouring to smooth the carpet,
or rather perhaps to rumple it, and every now and then collect
ing all his force, apparently to effect a concussion of the floor.
Mr. Banks, regarding him for some time with silent astonishment,
at last said, ' Dr. Johnson, I believe the floor is very firm ;' which
immediately made him desist, probably without making any
reply 2. It would have been difficult indeed to frame an apology
for such ridiculous manoeuvres.
It was amazing, so dim-sighted as Dr. Johnson was, how very
observant he was of appearances in Dress, in behaviour, and
even of the servants, how they waited at table, &c. ; the more
a hop-merchant of Southwark, for « Twelfth Night, Act ii. Sc. 4,
,£76. 13^. Gentleman's Magazine r, 1. 117.
1825, i. 607. 2 Life, i. 145.
T 2 particularly
276 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
particularly ', so seeming as he did to be stone-blind to his own 1.
One day as his man Frank was waiting at Sir Joshua's table,
he observed with some emotion that he had the salver under his
arm. Nor would the behaviour of the company on some occa
sions escape his animadversions ; particularly for their perversion
of the idea of refinement in the use of a water-glass, a very
strange perversion indeed he thought it, as some people use it.
He had also a great dislike to the use of a pocket-handkerchief
at meals, when, if he wanted one, I have seen him rise from his
Chair, and go at some distance with his back towards the
company, performing the operation as silently as possible.
Dr. Johnson's sight was so very defective that he could scarcely
distinguish the Face of his most intimate acquaintance at a half
yard's distance from him, and, in general, it was observable that
his critical remarks on dress, &c. were the result of a very close
inspection of the object 2 ; partly, perhaps, excited by curiosity,
and partly from a desire of exacting admiration of his perspicacity,
of which it was remarkable he was not a little ambitious.
That Dr. Johnson possessed the essential principles of polite
ness and of good taste, which I suppose are the same, at least
concomitant, none who knew his virtues and his genius will, I
imagine, be inclined to dispute 3. But why they remained with
him, like gold in the ore, unfashioned and unseen, except in his
literary capacity, no person that I know of has made any enquiry,
tho' in general it has been spoken of as an unaccountable incon
sistency in his character. But a little reflection on the dis-
< qualifying influence of blindness and deafness would suggest
many apologies for Dr. Johnson's want of politeness. The
particular instance I have just mentioned, of his inability to
discriminate the features of any one's face, deserves perhaps more
1 The words italicized have been fewest persons uneasy is the best
scored through. bred in the company.' Swift's Works,
2 Ante, \. 337. ed. 1803, xiv. 182. ' Courts,' he said,
* Politeness he one day defined as ' are the worst of all schools to teach
* fictitious benevolence.' Life, v. 82. good manners.' Ib. p. 189. 'A
See ante, i. 169. Swift looked upon Court is the best school for manners.*
good manners as * a sort of artificial Chesterfield's Letters to his Godson,
good sense.' The Tatler, No. 20. p. 392.
'Whoever/ he said, 'makes the
than
by Miss Reynolds. 277
any other to be taken into consideration, wanting, as he
did, the aid of those intelligent signs, or insinuations, which the
v countenance displays in social converse ; and which, in their
slightest degree, influence and regulate the manners of the polite,
t even of the common observer.
And to his defective hearing, perhaps, his unaccommodating
manners may be equally ascribed, which not only precluded him
1 from the perception of the expressive tones of the voice of others,
V but from hearing the boisterous sound of his own.
Under such disadvantages, it was not much to be wonder'd at
that Dr. Johnson should have commited \sic\ many blunders and
absurdities, and excited surprise and resentment in company ;
one in particular I remember to have heard related of him many
years since. Being in company with Mr. Garrick and some
others, who were unknown to Dr. Johnson, he was saying some
thing tending to the disparagement of the character or of the
works of a gentleman present — I have forgot the particulars ; on
which Mr. Garrick touched his foot under the table ; but he still
went on, and Garrick, much alarmed, touched him a second time,
and, I believe, the third ; at last Johnson exclaimed, ' David,
David, is it you ? What makes you tread on my toes so ? '
This little anecdote, perhaps, indicates as much the want of
prudence in Dr. Johnson as the want of sight. But had he at
first seen Garrick's expressive countenance x, and (probably) the
embarrassment of the rest of the company on the occasion, it
doubtless would not have happened.
Dr. Johnson was very ambitious of excelling in common
acquirements, as well as the uncommon, and particularly in feats
of activity 2. One day, as he was walking in Gunisbury Park (or
Paddock) 3 with some gentlemen and ladies, who were admiring
the extraordinary size of some of the trees, one of the gentlemen
said that, when he was a boy, he made nothing of climbing
1 See ante, i. 457, where Murphy 2 See ante, i. 224, for his swimming ;
writes of Johnson's slighting Gar- Life, i. 477, n. I, for his rolling down
rick : — ' The fact was, Johnson could a hill ; and ii. 299, for his courage
not see the passions as they rose and and strength.
chased one another in the varied 3 Perhaps the grounds of Gunners-
features of that expressive face.' bury House.
(swarming
278 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
(swarming x, I think, was the phrase) the largest there. ' Why,
I can swarm it now,' replied Dr. Johnson, which excited a hearty
laugh — (he was then, I believe, between fifty and sixty) ; on
which he ran to the tree, clung round the trunk, and ascended to
the branches, and, I believe, would have gone in amongst them,
had he not been very earnestly entreated to descend ; and down
he came with a triumphant air, seeming to make nothing of it.
At another time, at a gentleman's seat in Devonshire, as he
and some company were sitting in a saloon, before which was
a spacious lawn, it was remarked as a very proper place for
running a Race. A young lady present boasted that she could
outrun any person ; on which Dr. Johnson rose up and said,
' Madam, you cannot outrun me ; ' and, going out on the Lawn,
they started. The lady at first had the advantage ; but Dr. John
son happening to have slippers on much too small for his feet,
kick'd them off up into the air, and ran a great length without
them, leaving the lady far behind him, and, having won the
victory, he returned, leading Her by the hand, with looks of
high exultation and delight 2.
It was at this place where the lady of the House before a large
company at Dinner address'd herself to him with a very audible
voice, ' Pray, Dr. Johnson, what made you say in your Dictionary
that the Pastern of a Horse was the knee of an \sic\ Horse 3 ? J
* Ignorance, madam, ignorance,' answered Johnson. And I was
told that at another time at the same table, when the lady was
pressing him to eat something4, he rose up with his knife in his
hand, and loudly exclaim'd, ' I vow to God I cannot eat a bit
more,' to the great terror, it was said, of all the company. I did
not doubt of the gentleman's veracity who related this. But
I was rather surprised at this expression from Johnson ; for never
1 Swarming, in this sense, is not This blunder is the stranger as in
in Johnson's Dictionary. Miss Rey- Bailey's Dictionary, which he had
nolds in one of her manuscripts writes before him when writing his own,
warming. pastern is correctly defined.
2 From Paris he wrote : — ' I ran 4 Bos well records in his Tour : —
a race in the rain this day, and beat ' I must take some merit from my
Baretti.' Life, ii. 386. See Letters, contriving that he shall not be asked
ii. 363, n. I, for his race with his friend twice to eat or drink anything (which
Payne. always disgusts him).' Life, v. 264.
3 Ante, i. 182 n. ; Life, i. 293, 378. See ante, ii. 184 n.
did
by Miss Reynolds. 279
did I know any person so cautious in mentioning that awful
name on common occasions, and I have often heard him rebuke
those who have unawares interjuctionaly [sic] made use of it z.
It was about this time when a lady was traveling [sic] with
him in a post-chaise near a village Churchyard 2, in which she
had seen a very stricking [sic] object of maternal affection, a little
verdent [sic] flowery monument, raised by the Widow'd Mother
over the grave of her only child, and had heard some melancholy
circumstances concerning them, and as she was relating them to
Dr. Johnson, she heard him make heavy sighs, indeed sobs, and
turning round she saw his Dear Face bathed in tears, an incident
which induced the Lady to describe them in a little poem intitled
[sic] A melancholy 3 Tale, founded upon true circumstances 4.
1 Ante, ii. 18 n., 45 nf much affected. Dr. Johnson honour'd
2 Wear in Deavonshire (sic)) near two more poems by the same Author
Torrington. Miss REYNOLDS. with his corrections and inserted
Johnson went to Devonshire in them in Mrs. Williams's collection of
1762, and spent two days at Torring- poems, without knowing who was
ton, with Reynolds's brothers-in- the Author till many years after. In
law, Palmer and Johnson. Miss the same Book is a most beautiful
Reynolds, who saw him there, was little composition of his own, a Fairy
no doubt the lady. Taylor's Rey- tale, which I think shews the most
nolds, ii. 215, 217 ; Life, i. 377. amiable view of Dr. Johnson's mind
'Mr. Palmer's house is in its arrange- of any of his works.' See Life, ii. 26.
ments little altered since Dr. John- He wrote to her on June 16,
son dined in it in 1762.' Murray's 1780: — * Do not, my love, burn your
Handbook to Devon, ed. 1872, p. 260. papers. I have mended little but
3 Melancholy is scored through in some bad rhymes. I thought them
the original. very pretty, and was much moved in
4 In one of her manuscripts, after reading them.' Letters, ii. 180.
'bathed in tears,' Miss Reynolds In Lady Colomb's collection is a
added : — * A circumstance he had copy of her verses mended by John-
probably long forgotten, when he son. The following extract shows the
wrote at the end of the manuscript badness of her rhymes and the nature
Poem with his correcting pen in red of his corrections. These last, in
ink, I know not when I have been so italics, were written above the original.
* As late disconsolate in pensive mood
I sat revolving life's vicissitude
Oft sigh'd to think how youth had pass'd away,
And saw with sorrow Hope's diminish'd ray,
View'd the dark scene with melancholy gaze
In prospect view the dismal scene to come
Should Fate to helpless age prolong my Days
Of gloomy age should Fate my Days prolong,
Tho'
280 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
Tho' it cannot be said that Dr. Johnson was ( in manners
gentle,' yet it justly can, that he was ' in affections mild V bene
volent and Compassionate, and to this singularity of character,
inverting the common forms of civilized society, may I believe
be ascribed in a great measure his extraordinary celebrity,
sublimated, as one may say, with terror and with love.
But indeed it is worthy of consideration whether these, or any
of Dr. Johnson's singularities, would have excited such admira
tion, had they not been associated with the idea of his moral
and religious character ; hence, most undoubtedly, that universal
homage of respect and veneration that has been paid to his
memory.
Much may be said in excuse for Dr. Johnson's asperity of
manners at times, being, I believe, the natural effects of those
inherent melancholy infirmities, both mental and corporeal, to
which he was subject. Very rarely I believe — perhaps never —
was he intentionally asperous, unless provoked by something
said or done that seem'd detrimental to the cause of religion or
morality, even in the slightest degree2. Tho' indeed it must be
confessed that in his zealous ardour to defend the former he too
often trespassed on the borders of the latter.
in the middle way
Yet whilst I linger on the doubtful steep
Where Life's high vigour verges to decay
Where youth declining seems with age to meet
Sure Nature acts, I cry'd, by wond'rous Laws
Nature to her own Laws appears averse,
She yet all hope -withdraws
Still prompts resistance where there's no redress ;
The springing grass, the circulating air.
Chears every sense the common air I breathe
to praise and prayer.
Each common bounty prompts to prayer and praise.'
Johnson seems to have soon grown are not much less than those in the
weary of correcting; at all events whole poem of about 170 lines,
the corrections in the first few lines
1 ' Of manners gentle, of affections mild,
In wit a man ; simplicity a child.
Pope, Epitaph on Gay.
* ' Obscenity and impiety (said in my company.' Life, iv. 295. See
Johnson) have always been repressed ante, ii. 224.
But
by Miss Reynolds. 281
But what I believe chiefly conduced to fix that general stigma
on his character for ill-breeding was his naturally loud and im
perious tone of voice x, which apparently heightened his slightest
dissenting opinion to a degree of harsh reproof, and, with his
corresponding Aspect, had in general an intimidating influence
on those who were not much acquainted with him, and often
excited a degree of resentment, which his words in their common
acceptation had no tendency to provoke. I have often on those
occasions heard him express great surprise that what he had
said could have given any offence 2, but rarely, I believe, any
sorrow 3, being conscious of the rectitude of his intentions, which
to preserve seem'd his chief concern, the chief object of his
meditations, in which not unfrequently he seem'd absorbed even
when in company.
It was doubtless very natural for so good a man to keep
a strict watch over his mind 4 ; but so very strict as Dr. Johnson
apparently did may perhaps in some measure be attributed to
his dread of its hereditary tendencies, which, I had reason to
believe, he was very apprehensive bordered upon insanity5.
Probably his studious attention to repel their prevalency, together
with his experience of divine assistance, co-operating with his
reasoning faculties, may have proved in the highest degree
conducive to the exaltation of his piety, the pre-eminency of his
wisdom ; and I think it is probable that all his natural defects
which so peculiarly debard \sic\ him from unprofitable amuse
ments were also conducive to the same end 6.
1 Ante, i. 451. 'no such weak-nerved people' as to
2 * After musing for some time, he be hurt by being contradicted roughly
said, " I wonder how I should have and harshly ; and iv. 295.
any enemies ; for I do harm to no- 3 For his readiness to seek a re-
body." ' Life, iv. 1 68. conciliation, see ante, ii. 223.
When he was ill of the palsy, he 4 See ante, ii. 225, where Sir Joshua
wrote to Mrs. Thrale :— 'I have in Reynolds also mentions 'the strict
this still scene of life great comfort watch Johnson kept over himself.'
in reflecting that I have given very 5 Ante, i. 409.
few reason to hate me. I hope 6 In another version of the Recol-
scarcely any man has known me lections Miss Reynolds writes : —
closely but for his benefit, or cursorily * Being so peculiarly debarred from
but to his innocent entertainment.' the enjoyment of those amusements
Letters, ii. 314. See also Life, iv. which the eye and the ear 'afford,
280, where he says that he knows doubtless he sought more assiduously
That
282
Recollections of Dr. Johnson
That Dr. Johnson's mind was preserved from insanity by
his Devotional aspirations may surely be reasonably supposed.
No man could have a firmer reliance on the efficacy of Prayer,
and he would often with a solemn earnestness beg of his intimate
friends to pray for him, and apparently on very slight occasions
of corporeal indisposition.
But that he should have desired one prayer from Dr. Dodd,
who was such an atrocious offender, has I know been very much
condemn'd, as highly injurious to his character, not considering
perhaps that Dr. Johnson might have had sufficient reason to
believe Dodd to be a sincere Penitent, which indeed was the
case I ; besides his mind was so soften'd with pitty \sic\ and
for those gratifications which scientific
pursuits or philosophic meditation be
stow.' Somewhat the same thought
is expressed by Baron Grimm : —
* Je ne saurais m'empecher d'avancer,
en passant, un paradoxe qui me"rite
cependant d'etre approfondi ; c'est
que dans Petat ou sont les choses, et
1'esprit de^socie'te' etouffant continu-
ellement en nous le genie, rien n'est
si favorable a sa conservation que des
sens peu parfaits. Ainsi, la vue ex-
tremement basse vous empechera de
remarquer mille petites manieres,
mille minuties, et vous ne pourrez
jamais avoir envie de les imiter, parce
que vous ne les aurez jamais apergues.
Ainsi, votre oreille peu fine vous em
pechera de distinguer la difference
des tons, et vous serez garanti de la
manie de vous y exercer, parce que
vous ne les aurez pas sentis. C'est
ainsi que votre genie concentr^ en lui-
meme au milieu de la societe" con-
servera sa force et sa surete, et sera
a 1'abri des dangers qui 1'entourent.'
Correspondence de Grimm, ed. 1814,
i. 187.
1 ' Atrocious ' is an absurd term to
apply to Dodd. Johnson in his last
letter to him said :— ' Be comforted ;
your crime, morally or religiously
considered, has no very deep dye of
turpitude. It corrupted no man's
principles ; it attacked no man's life.
It involved only a temporary and
reparable injury. ... In requital of
those well-intended offices which you
are pleased so emphatically to ac
knowledge, let me beg that you make
in your devotions one petition for my
eternal welfare/ Life, iii. 147.
Wesley, who visited Dodd in prison
two days before his execution, said : —
'Such a prisoner I scarce ever saw
before; much less such a condemned
malefactor. I should think none
could converse with him without ac
knowledging that God is with him.'
Wesley's Journal, ed. 1827, i. 378.
Dodd had forged the signature of
his late pupil, the fifth Earl of Chester
field, to a bond for ,£4,200, ' flattering
himself with hopes that he might be
able to repay its amount without
being detected.' Life, iii. 140.
Five years earlier he had published
a sermon 'intended to have been
preached in the Chapel-Royal at
St. James's,' on 'the Frequency of
Capital Punishments inconsistent
with Justice, sound Policy and Re
ligion.' Gentleman's Magazine, 1772,
p. 182.
In the Index to the first 56 volumes
of the Gentleman 's Magazine under
compassion
by Miss Reynolds. 283
compassion for him, so impress'd with the awful idea of his
situation, the last evening of his life, he probably did not
think of his former transgressions, or thought, perhaps, that
he ought not to remember them, when the offender was so
soon to appear before the Supreme Judge of Heaven and
Earth.
Dr. Johnson gave me a copy of this letter, I believe the Day
after Dodd's execution, and also of that which he wrote to
Mr. Jenkinson (now the Earl of Liverpool) in Dodd's behalf,
which, tho' they have already appear'd in Print, I am tempted
to insert them, as they seem to have a slight connexion with
some particulars which Dr. Johnson related to me at the same
time, concerning Dodd's behaviour, which I believe are not
much known. [For the letter to Jenkinson see Life, iii. 145,
and to Dodd, ib. iii. 147.]
Dr. Johnson wrote his speech at his Tryal [sic], at least the
best part of it, and also that which he spoke at the Place of
execution1, with the alteration but of one word. It was
originally, ' My life has been) most dreadfully Hypocritical,'
which Dodd objected to, and alter' d it for dreadfully erronious 2
[sic].
Dr. Johnson told me that on Dodd's reading the letter he
sent to him the evening before his execution, he gave it into
the hands of his wife, with a strong injunction never to part
Executions is entered, ' See Domestic Lord Chesterfield never altogether
Occurrences at the end of the Month' surmounted the unfavourable im-
Wraxall met Dodd at a dinner at pression produced by the prominent
the Messrs. Dilly in Nov. 1776. He share which he took in Dodd's prose-
describes him as ' a plausible, agree- cution.' Wheatley's WraxaWs Me-
able man, lively, entertaining, well- moirs, iv. 248.
informed and communicative in con- T Dodd did not utter this speech,
versation. . . . The King felt the but left it with the sheriff. Life, iii.
strongest impulse to save him To 143.
the firmness of the Lord Chief Justice 8 Dodd objecting to hypocritical
(Mansfield) his execution was due, said: — ' With this he could not charge
for no sooner had he pronounced his himself.' Ib. He kept up his self-
decided opinion that no mercy ought deception to the end. As Johnson
to be extended, than the King, taking said of him : — * A man who has been
up the pen, signed the death warrant. canting all his life may cant to the
. . . During a pelting shower of rain last.' Ib. iii. 270.
he was turned off at Tyburn. . . .
with
284 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
with it ; that he had slept during the Night, and when he awoke
in the morning, he did not immediately recollect what he was
to suffer, and the moment that he did, he express'd the utmost
horror and agony of mind — outrageously vehement in his speech
and in his looks — till he went into the Chapel, and on his
coming out of it his face express'd the most angelic peace and
composure.
Dr. Johnson also told me that Dodd probably entertain'd
some hopes of life even to the last moment1, having been flatter'd
by some of his medical friends that there was a chance of
suspending its total extinction till he was cut down, by placing
the knot of the rope in a particular manner behind his ear.
That then he was to be carried to a convenient Place, where
they would use their utmost endeavours to recover him. All this
was done. The hangman observed their injunctions in fixing
the rope, and as the cart drew off, said in Dodd's ear, you
must not move an inch 2 ! But he struggled. — Being carried
to the place appointed, his friends endeavoured to restore
him by bathing his Breast with warm water, which Dr. John
son said was not so likely to have that effect as cold water.
That a man wander'd round the Prison some Days before his
execution, with bank notes in his Pocket to the amount of
a thousand pounds, to bribe the jailor to let him escape.
I have been induced to mention all these particulars from
a supposition (as I observed before) that they are but little
known, having never heard any person speak of them (excepting
that of the Bank notes) besides Dr. Johnson, who had his
intelligence from the best authority, immediately after the
1 'Dr. Johnson told us that Dodd's * when cut down and put in coffins
city friends stood by him so, that came both to life; one though he
a thousand pounds were ready to be had been blooded died about eleven
given to the gaoler if he would let at night ; the other, continuing alive,
him escape.' Life, iii. 1 66. See ib. was put in Bridewell, where great
n. 3 for the convict who ' could not numbers of people resorted to see
find that any one who had two him. Having been always defective
hundred pounds was ever hanged.' in his intellects he was not to be
2 In the Gentleman's Magazine for hanged, but to be taken care of in
1736, p. 549, it is reported that two a Charity House.'
house-breakers hanged at Bristol, See also ante, ii. 143 n.
execution
by Miss Reynolds. 285
execution. He had no personal acquaintance with Dodd. I
believe he never was in his company *.
No man, I believe, was ever more desirous of doing good
than Dr. Johnson, whether propel'd [sic] by Nature or by
Reason ; by both I should have thought, had I not so often
heard him say, That ' Man's chief merit consists in resisting
the impulses of his nature.' Not what may be call'd his second
Nature, evil habits, &c., but his Nature originally corrupted from
the fall. * Nay, nay,' he would say (to a person who thought
that Nature, Reason, and Virtue were indivisable \sic\ in the
mind of man, as inherent characteristic principles) 'If man is
by nature prompted to act virtuously and right, all the divine
precepts of the Gospel, all its denunciations, all the laws enacted
by man to restrain man from evil had been needless 2.'
It is certain that he was rather apt to doubt the sincerity
of those who express'd much pity and compassion for the
distresses of others3. How strange in Him, who 'had a tear
for Pity And a Hand, open as Day for melting Charity4.'
And it has been thought almost equally as strange that he
should have had no taste for music 5 or for Painting ; but being
so precluded as he was (I believe even from his infancy) from
1 He had been once. Ltfe,\\\. 140. very ready to do you good. They
2 'Whatever (said Johnson) is the pay you by feeling"' Ib. ii. 94. See
cause of human corruption, men are also ib. ii. 469, 471 ; ante^ i. 205, 268.
evidently and confessedly so corrupt, 4 2 Henry IV, Act. iv. Sc. 4, 1. 31.
that all the laws of heaven and earth 5 In one of her manuscripts Miss
are insufficient to restrain them from Reynolds writes: — * Music apparently
crimes.' Ib. iv. 123. had a power to disgust him, par-
3 ' Talking of our feeling for the ticularly in Churches, which, I have
distresses of others: — JOHNSON. heard him say, almost tempted him
" Why, Sir, there is much noise to go out of the Church. How very
made about it, but it is greatly ex- strange in so good a man, so good
aggerated. No, Sir, we have a certain a poet, and so deep a philosopher ! '
degree of feeling to prompt us to do ' Music (he said) excites in my
good ; more than that Providence mind no ideas, and hinders me
does not intend. It would be misery from contemplating my own.' Ante,
to no purpose." ... BOSWELL. " I have ii. 103. In his seventy-fourth year,
often blamed myself, Sir, for not feel- he said, on hearing the music of a
ing for others as sensibly as many say funeral procession : — ' This is the
they do." JOHNSON. " Sir, don't be first time that I have ever been
duped by them any more. You will affected by musical sounds.' Life,
find these very feeling people are not iv. 22.
his
286 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
his defects of sight and of hearing, from receiving any grati
fication from either the one or the other, he could have had
no taste for them, no acquired Taste, at least for painting, his
sight being much more defective than his hearing. A natural
good Taste he certainly possess'd for all the fine Arts, and
from an observation I remember to have heard him make,
when expatiating in praise of Dr. Burney's history of music —
' That that work evidently proved that the Author of it under
stood the Philosophy of music better than any man who had
ever written on that subject,' it must be supposed that he had
felt its power, and that he had a taste for music x.
It is curious to observe the strong proofs that Dr. Burney
gives throughout his Book almost, of the strict union of music
with Painting, in using (when describing the excellence or the
defects of a musical Composition) precisely the same words
that a Painter must use in describing the excellence or the
defects of a Picture.
It is with much regret that I reflect on my stupid negligence
to write down some of Dr. Johnson's Discourses, his observations,
precepts, &c. A few short sentences only did I ever take any
account of in writing, and these I lately found in some old
memorandum pocket-Books of ancient date, about the time
of the commencement of my acquaintance with him. Those
few indeed, relating to the character of the French, were taken
viva voce the Day after his arrival from France, Novr. 14, -75 2,
intending them, I find, for the subject of a letter to a Friend
in the Country.
Also from the same motive perhaps I wrote down a long
narration which Mr. Baretti gave of some Paris inn adventures
1 He heard the following passage other, with which they seem greatly
read aloud from the preface to Dr. delighted.' '"Sir," he cried, after
Burney's History of Music while it a little pause, " this assertion I be-
was yet in manuscript : — ' The love lieve may be right." And then, see-
of lengthened tones and modulated sawing a minute or two on his
sounds seems a passion implanted in chair, he forcibly added : — " All
human nature throughout the globe ; animated nature loves music— except
as we hear of no people, however myself ! " ' Dr. Burney's Memoirs^
wild and savage in other particulars, ii. 77.
who have not music of some kind or 2 Life, ii. 401.
&C.
by Miss Reynolds. 287
&c. related probably the next Day, which is verbatim as he
spoke it with an intermixture of French phrases.
TALKING ON THE SUBJECT OF SCEPTICISM.
JOHNSON. 'The eyes of the mind are like the eyes of the
Body. They can see but at such a distance. But because
we cannot see beyond this point, is there nothing beyond it?'
ON THE WANT OF MEMORY.
* No, Sir, it is not true ; in general every person has an equal
capacity for reminiscence, and for one thing as well as another ;
otherwise it would be like a person's complaining that he could
hold silver in his hand, but could not hold copper x.'
A GENTLEMAN. ' I think when a person laughs when alone
he supposes himself for the moment with company.'
JOHNSON. 'Yes, if it be true that laughter is a comparison
of self-superiority, you must suppose some person with you 2.'
' No, Sir,' he once said, * people are not born with a particular
genius for particular employments or studies, for it would be
like saying that a man could see a great way east, but could not
west3. It is good sense applied with diligence to what was
at first a mere accident, and which, by great application, grew
to be called, by the generality of mankind, a particular
genius V
1 ' The true art of memory is the apply to law as to tragick poetry."
art of attention.' Idler, No. 74. BOSWELL. " Yet, Sir, you did apply
2 ' Mr. Hobbes in his Discourse of to tragick poetry, not to law." JOHN-
Human Nature concludes thus : — SON. " Because, Sir, I had not money
" The passion of laughter is nothing to study law. Sir, the man who has
else but sudden glory arising from vigour, may walk to the east, just as
some sudden conception of some well as to the west, if he happens to
eminency in ourselves by comparison turn his head that way.'" Life, v. 35.
with the infirmity of others, or with Mr. Bryce in his American Com-
our own formerly ; for men laugh at monvuealth (2nd. ed. ii. 631) mis-
the follies of themselves past, when quoting this passage says : — ' Dr.
they come suddenly to remembrance, Johnson thought that if he had taken
except they bring with them any to politics he would have been as
present dishonour.' The Spectator, distinguished therein as he was in
No. 47. poetry.'
3 'JOHNSON. "I could as easily 4 'The true genius is a mind of
Some
288
Recollections of Dr. Johnson
Some person advanced, that a lively imagination disqualified
the mind from fixing steadily upon objects which required
serious and minute investigation. JOHNSON. ' It is true, Sir,
a vivacious quick imagination does sometimes give a confused
idea of things, and which do not fix deep, though, at the same
time, he has a capacity to fix them in his memory, if he would
endeavour at it. It being like a man that, when he is running,
does not make observations on what he meets with, and con
sequently Is not impressed by them ; but he has, nevertheless,
the power of stopping and informing himself.'
A gentleman was mentioning it as a remark of an acquaintance
of his, that he never knew but one person that was completely
wicked x. JOHNSON. ' Sir, I don't know what you mean by
a person completely wicked/ GENTLEMAN. * Why, any one that
has entirely got rid of all shame.' JOHNSON. ' How is he, then,
completely wicked? He must get rid, too, of all conscience/
GENTLEMAN. ' I think conscience and shame the same thing.'
JOHNSON. ' I am surprised to hear you say so ; they spring
from two different sources, and are distinct perceptions : one
respects this world, the other the next 2.' A LADY. ' I think,
however, that a person who has got rid of shame is in a fair
way to get rid of conscience.' JOHNSON. 'Yes, 'tis a part of
large general powers, accidentally
determined to some particular direc
tion.' Works,vi\.\. See ante, i. 314 ;
ii. 264 ; and Life, ii. 436.
' I know of no such thing as genius,'
said our Hogarth to Gilbert Cooper
one day; 'genius is nothing but
labour and diligence.' Seward's
Biographiana, p. 293.
1 * I once knew (said Johnson) an
old gentleman who was absolutely
malignant. He really wished evil to
others, and rejoiced at it.' Life, iii.
281.
2 Conscience, Johnson defines as
* nothing more than a conviction felt
by ourselves of something to be
done, or something to be avoided.'
Id. ii. 243.
In his Dictionary he defines it as
' the knowledge or faculty by which
we judge of the goodness or wicked
ness of ourselves.' Shame he defines
as * the passion felt when reputation
is supposed to be lost.'
According to Northcote (Life of
Reynolds, i. 230) the * gentleman '
was Reynolds, and the 'lady' Miss
Reynolds. Sir Joshua said that ' he
thought it was exactly the same ' —
being lost to all sense of shame,
and being lost to all sense of con
science. ' " What ! " said Johnson,
" can you see no difference ? I am
ashamed to hear you or anybody
utter such nonsense ; when the one
relates to men only ; the other to
God.'"
the
by Miss Reynolds. 289
the way, I grant; but there are degrees at which men stop,
some for the fear of men, some for the fear of God: shame
arises from the fear of men, conscience from the fear of God *.'
JOHNSON. * The French, Sir, are a very silly People, they
have no common life. Nothing but the two ends, Beggary and
Nobility2.'
* Sir, they are made up in every thing of two extremes. They
have no common sense, they have no common manners, no
common learning, gross ignorance or les belles lettres V
A LADY. ' Indeed even in their dress, their fripary [sic] finery
and their beggarly coarse linnen4. They had I thought no
politeness. Their civilities never indicated more good-will than
the talk of a Parrot, indiscriminately using the same set of super
lative phrases as a la merveille ! to every one alike. They really
seem'd to have no expressions for sincerity and truth.'
JOHNSON. 'They are much behind-hand, stupid, ignorant
creatures. At Fountainblue [sic] I saw a Horse-race5, every
thing was wrong, the heaviest weight was put upon the weakest
Horse, and all the jockies wore the same colour coat.'
1 * It was chiefly respecting the eenth century ' as ' one of the most
opinion of the Gentleman that this powerful and pervasive intellectual
dialogue appear'd memorable to the agencies that have ever existed — the
writer.' Miss REYNOLDS. greatest European force of the eight-
2 ' Johnson observed. " The great eenth century.' Essays in Criticism,
in France live very magnificently, ed. 1889, p. 54.
but the rest very miserably. There 4 Mrs. Carter wrote from Calais
is no happy middle state as in on June 4, 1763 :— ' In the market
England." ' Life, ii. 402. I saw such a mixture of rags and dirt
3 In another version Miss Reynolds and finery as was entirely new to an
writes 'or la metaphysique? The English spectator. The women at
French, in this, were the opposite of the stalls, who looked as if they were
the Scotch, ' whose learning is like by no means possessed of anything
bread in a besieged town; every man like a shift, were decorated with long
gets a little, but no man gets a full dangling earrings. ... I am sorry to
meal.' Life, ii. 363. 'There is, say it, but it is fact, that the Lion
perhaps, (said Johnson) more know- d' Argent at Calais is a much better
ledge circulated in the French Ian- inn than any I saw at Dover.' Mrs.
guage than in any other. There is Carter's Memoirs, i. 253.
more original knowledge in English.' 5 He does not mention this in his
16. v. 310. Matthew Arnold describes journal. Lifet ii. 394.
' the French literature of the eight-
VOL. ii. u GENTLEMAN.
290 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
GENTLEMAN. ' Had you any acquaintance in Paris ? '
' No, I did not stay long enough to make any x. I spoke only
latin, and I could not have much conversation. There is no
good in letting the French have a superiority over you every
word you speak 2.
' Barreti \sic\ was sometimes displeased with us for not liking
the French/
LADY. * Perhaps he had a kind of partiality for that country,
because it was in the way to Italy, and perhaps their manners
resembled the Italians.'
JOHNSON. ' No. He was the showman, and we did not like
his show ; that was all the reason.'
From Mr. Barreti [sic] 3.
A lady observed that Dr. Johnson had said that Madam De
Bo — age [Du Bocage] was a poor creature.
BARRETI. ' Yes, because he hated her before he saw her, for
the lady Mrs. Strickland4, who went with us from Diepe5 to
Paris, being introduced to Madam D — e (by a letter she carried)
told her, that le grand Johnson, 1'homme le plus savant de toute
1'Angleterre, was come to Paris, and Mr. Barretti. " Oh Barretti,
Barretti, that I have heard so much of, and that I have wish'd so
much to see ; bring me, bring me Baretti, je vous en prie,"
MRS. S — D. * Et le grand Johnson aussi ? '
M. D. ' Je ne me soucie de qui que ce soit d'autre, pourvu
que vous m'amenez Barretti. Je lis actuellement son livre, son
voyage d'Espagne, et je suis variment [sic] impatiente d'en con-
noitre 1'Auteur 6. Mais je vous prie de faire mes compliments a
1 'I was (he said) just beginning land, a high lady.' Life, iii. 118.
to creep into acquaintance.' Life, ii. He mentions her in a letter to Mrs.
401. Thrale. Letters, i. 401.
2 ' It was a maxim with Johnson 5 Johnson crossed from Dover to
that a man should not let himself Calais, but he visited Rouen on the
down by speaking a language which way to Paris. I suppose he went
he speaks imperfectly.' Ib. ii. 404. along the coast to Dieppe.
3 In the next few lines Miss Rey- 6 Of this book Johnson wrote : —
nolds spells Baretti's name in three ' I know not whether the world has
different ways. ever seen such Travels before.' Let-
4 Johnson described her as 'a ters, i. 165.
Roman Catholick lady in Cumber-
tous
by Miss Reynolds. 291
tous, et a Madame Thrale en particulier. Je serai tres aise de
voir toute cette bonne compagnie.'
' Mrs. S — d on her return (continued Barretti) said something
of Madame D — Js impatience to see me in Johnson's hearing ;
and finding her quite indifferent about him he took such an
antipathy to her, that he went with reluctancy to visit her, and
never could be prevailed upon to go a second time ' ; which
perhaps was not to be wondered at, for the Ladies and Barretti
on going one Day to drink tea with her, she happen'd to produce
an old chaina [sic] teapot, which Mrs. S — d, who made the tea,
could not make pour. ' Soufflez, soufflez, madame, dedans/ cry'd
Madame D — e, * il se rectifie imme'diatement ; essayez, je vous
en prie.' The servant then thinking that Mrs. S — d did not
understand what his lady said, took up the teapot to le rectifier,
and Mrs. S — d had quite a struggle with him to get it from
him ; he was going to blow into the spout ! Madame D — e all
this while had not the least idea of its being any impropriety,
and wonder'd at Mrs. S — d's stupidity. She came over to the
table, caught up the tea-pot, and blew into the spout with all
her might, then finding it pour, she held it up in tryumph [sic],
and repeatedly exclaim'd, ' voila, voila, j'ai regagne 1'honneur de
ma Theiere.' She had no sugar-tongs, and said something that
shew'd she expected Mrs. S — d to use her fingers, to sweeten the
cups. ' Madame je n'oserois/ ' Oh mon Dieu, quel grand quan
quan les Anglois font de peu de chose * ! '
This however could not have prejudiced Dr. Johnson against
the lady, for, as I apprehended Barretti, it happen'd a few days
before they left Paris !
On telling Mr. Barretti of the proof that Johnson gave of the
stupidity of the French, in the management of their Horse-
1 Miss Reynolds in one of her threw it into my coffee. I was going
versions writes: — 'Madame, Je ne to put it aside; but hearing it was
ose pas.' 'Oh mon Dieu, quell grand made on purpose for me I e'en tasted
ca les Anglois faire de peu de chose.' Tom's fingers. The lady would needs
In another version her French is make tea d PAngloise. The spout of
corrected in a different hand. the tea-pot did not pour freely ; she
' JOHNSON. " At Madame 's, bad the footman blow into it.' Life,
a literary lady of rank, the footman ii. 403.
took the sugar in his fingers and
U 2 Races,
292 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
Races, that all the Jockies wore the same colour coat dye he
said ' that was like Johnson's remarks, he could not see.' But it
was observed that he could enquire. ' Yes, it was by the answers
he received that he was misled/ for he ask'd, * what did the first
jockey wear ? ' answer, * Green/ * What the second ? ' * Green.1
* What the third ? ' * Green ; ' which was true ; but then the
greens were all different greens, and very easily distinguished.
Johnson was perpetually making mistakes; so, on going to
Fountainblue \sic\ when we were about three-fourths of the way,
he exclaimed with amazement that now we were between Paris
and the King of France's Court, and yet we had not mett \sic\
one carriage coming from thense \sic\t or seen one going thither !
on which all the company in the coach burst out laughing, and
immediately cry*d out, look, look, there is a coach gon [sic] by,
there is a chariot, there is a post-chaise. I dare say we saw
a hundred carriages at least, that were going to, or coming from,
Fountainblue/
It was mention'd with surprise to Mr. Barretti that Dr. Johnson
should not have seen any Play but that one he saw at Fountain-
blue x. ' Oh yes, he was at two or three/ ( Indeed, he said he
had not, and we know that he never tells an untruth.' B. * Yes,
I very well remember that he straddled over the Benches to
come near some person, a la Comedie Frangaise.'
Baretti on his return from France seem'd full of animosity
against Johnson, merely, I believe, from a false conceit of his
own importance.
[Here follows a narrative which has nothing to do with
Johnson.]
I believe there never subsisted any cordial Friendship between
Dr. Johnson and Barretti after their journey to Paris 2 ; and what
perhaps intirely extinguished it, was a most mendacious falsehood
that he told Johnson of his having beaten Omai 3 at Chess, both
times that he play'd with him at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, for the
very reverse was true !
1 Johnson recorded in his Journal: — 2 Johnson wrote sarcastically of
'At night we went to a comedy. I Baretti a few months before this
neither saw nor heard.' Life, ii. journey. Letters, i. 350.
394. 3 Life, iii. 8.
4 Do
by Miss Reynolds. 293
1 Do you think,' said he to Johnson, ' that I should be conquered
at Chess by a savage ? ' * I know you were/ says Johnson.
Barretti insisting upon the contrary, Johnson rose from his seat
in a most violent rage/ ' I'll hear no more.' On which Barretti
in a fright flew out of his House, and perhaps never entered it
after. I believe he was never invited. This I was told by
Mrs. Williams, who was present at their disputation.
Poor Mrs. Williams ! Dr. Johnson seemed much to lament
her loss ' as his companion for thirty years V and often express'd
a very high opinion of her mental accomplishments. She was,
he said, ' a very great woman.' I rather expected he would have
honour'd her memory with a few elegiack lines, as he did her
fellow Inmate, Dr. Levit \sic\ 2, a copy of which Dr. Johnson
gave to me soon after he wrote them.
[Here followed Johnson's Letter to Sir Joseph Banks given
in the Life, ii. 144.]
And I have also a desire to say something about the latin
epitaph that Dr. Johnson composed for Parnel, because Mr.
Boswell has said too little3, no blame to him, I imagine, for
I suppose Dr. Johnson did not inform him that he produced it
extempory one evening at Sir Joshua Reynolds's, in compliance
with Dr. Goldsmith's request 4. ' Pray, Sir, be so good as to
write an epitaph for Dr. Parnell/ and almost immediately after,
to the surprise of all present, he recited with solemn accent : —
Hie requiescit Thomas Parnel,
Qui Sacerdos pariter et Poeta
Utrasque partes ita implevit,
Ut neque sacerdoti suavitas Poetae,
Nee poetae sacerdotis sanctitas deesset.
1 He wrote to Miss Reynolds on Goldsmith in this work, lamenting
Oct. I, 1783 : — 'To my other afflic- the obscurity of the lives of men who
tions is added solitude. Mrs.Williams, become famous after death, finely
a companion of thirty years, is gone.' says :— ' When a poet's fame is in-
Letters, ii. 337. creased by time, it is then too late to
2 Life, iv. 137. investigate the peculiarities of his
3 Ib. iv. 54 ; v. 404. disposition ; the dews of the morn-
4 Goldsmith wrote a Life of Parnell^ ing are past, and we vainly try to
of which Johnson said: — 'It is poor; continue the chace by the meridian
not that it is poorly written, but that splendour.' Misc. Works, ed. 1801,
he had poor materials.' Ib. ii. 166. iv. 3.
Every
294 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
Every person that understood latin seem'd much pleased with
it. But Dr. Goldsmith, for what reason I know not, paid him
no compliment, and only said on hearing it, ' Ay, but this is in
latin z.' { 'Tis in latin, to be sure,' reply'd Dr. Johnson. I do
not remember what follow'd, but I could not forget the striking
proof that Dr. Johnson gave of his abilities on this occasion, nor
of Dr. Goldsmith's unwillingness to be pleased with it, apparently
confused, and not knowing what to say. I did not hear him
express any desire to have the epitaph in english, either before
or after Dr. Johnson composed it. However he soon after
wrote one himself in english, and it is, I believe, inscribed on
Dr. Parnel's Tomb 2.
That Mr. Boswell has sullied his very entertaining and most
extraordinary work with his many acrimonious animadversions
^ on the works, the talents, the conduct, &c. of the most respectable
characters, must, I imagine, be allow'd by all who have read it,
especially if they have remark'd that the evidence which he
produces to substantiate his allegations rather prove their futility.
That many are repetitions of the words of another admits of
no extenuation of his fault, but on the contrary, I think, doubly
augment \sic\ its turpitude.
[I here omit an unimportant passage.]
He has antidated [sic] the commencement of Sir Joshua
Reynolds's acquaintance with Dr. Johnson by at least five years 3,
and has mistaken the place where they first met, with some other
immaterial errors, respecting him and place, &c. The other erro
neous date was March 28 [1776] which engaged my attention in
consequence of Mr. Boswell's assertion that Mrs. and Miss Thrale
set out for Bath in that Day, as it reminded me of a letter from
Doctor Johnson that mention'd that incident ; it is dated April
1 For Johnson's contempt of English Goldsmith, makes no mention of this
epitaphs for learned men, see Life, epitaph.
iii. 84; v. 154, 366. 3 Boswell places it in 1752. Life,
2 'Parnell was buried in Trinity 1.245, n- I- Reynolds wrote, ante,
Church in Chester, without any ii. 219, that he had had 'thirty years'
monument to mark the place of his intimacy with Johnson,' which places
interment.' Goldsmith's Misc. Works, it not later than 1754.
iv. 3. Mr. Forster, in his Life of
by Miss Reynolds. 295
13, -76, in which he says we are going to Bath this morning.
Such mistakes indeed are of little, or no importance z ; but it is
owing to a contrary supposition that I mention the following.
I read the passage in Mr. Boswell's book relating to the dial
plate of Dr. Johnson's watch with much surprise, and indeed
concern. I was surprised to find that the inscription on it was
in Greek, having heard from Dr. Johnson's own mouth that it
was in Latin. I will not say that I read the words, it was so
long since ; but I believe I did, having his watch in my hand,
when he repeated them to me, which he was shewing me in
consequence of its being a new and valuable acquisition from
Mr. Mudge 2. They were, Nox enim veniet, and I was indeed
concerned, for the honour of Dr. Johnson's character, which I
thought not a little degraded by Mr. Boswell's assertion, that he
had the plate taken out for fear it should be deemed ostentatious 3.
How Mr. Boswell could have supposed it to be consistent with
Dr. Johnson's principles to have divested himself of a holy
memento from the fear of what any man might think is very
strange. Nor can I indeed conceive how it could be consistent
with any man's principles, who at first had chosen such an in
scription, to have been at all solicitous to discard it, as no one
could inspect it without the concurrence of the owner, and less
frequently did Dr. Johnson afford any person an opportunity of
inspecting even the outside case of his watch than perhaps most
men, being remarkably remiss in noticing the hour, even the
1 The mistake is Miss Reynolds's, Miss Reynolds applies the word
and shows the carelessness with artist to a watchmaker. Her brother
which she read Boswell, who states she would have called a painter.
that on March 28 Mrs. and Miss For Thomas Mudge, the watch-
Thrale and Baretti went to Bath, maker, see ante, ii. 117.
and that Johnson soon after April 12 3 Boswell quotes Johnson's own
went there with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. words. * He sometime afterwards
Life, iii. 6, 44. Mrs. Thrale had in laid aside this dial-plate ; and when
the interval returned to London, for I asked him the reason, he said,
she was at her own house on the loth. " It might do very well upon a clock
J&' P- 33' which a man keeps in his closet ;
2 ' An artist of great reputation, not but to have it upon his watch which
only in England but in foreign he carries about with him, and which
countries. The King of Spain had is often looked at by others, might
a watch of his making set in the be censured as ostentatious." ' Life,
head of his cane.' Miss REYNOLDS, ii. 57. See also ante, i. 123 n.
midnight
296 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
midnight hour ! Besides its being in Greek heightened the im
probability of Dr. Johnson's being so afraid of incurring the
censure Mr. Boswell mentions ; and I am happy to be able to
contradict it ; for soon after Dr. Johpson had shewn me the
latin one, he told me that he had it taken out because he found
that enim was not in the original1, which is only The Night
cometh, a motive perfectly consonant with his character. I do
not remember to have heard him say that the substitute was in
the original Greek ; hence my surprise on reading Mr. Boswell's
assertion that it was. The identical watch to which he alluded
was some years since in the possession of Mr. Steevens, but since
his Decease I have never heard what was become of it 2.
[The following Recollections by Miss Reynolds, which are
not in the manuscript copies that I saw, are given by Mr. Croker.
Croker's Boswell, 8vo. pp. 832-5.]
It will doubtless appear highly paradoxical to the generality
of the world to say, that few men, in his ordinary disposition or
common frame of mind, could be more inoffensive than Dr.
Johnson ; yet surely those who knew his uniform benevolence,
and its actuating principles — steady virtue, and true holiness —
will readily agree with me, that peace and good -will towards
man were the natural emanations of his heart 3.
1 'Venit nox quando nemo potest whether there are in existence two
operari.' St. John ix. 4. watches said to be Johnson's.
2 It was the dial-plate and not 3 'Johnson's roughness was only
the watch which was in the posses- external, and did not proceed from
sion of Mr. Steevens. Life, ii. 57. the heart.' Life, ii. 362. ' He has
For the watch see ante, ii. 81, and nothing of the bear but his skin,'
ii. 117 «., where it is stated by said Goldsmith. Ib. ii. 66. 'How
Croker that the watch, which on very false is the notion which has
Johnson's death came into the pos- gone round the world of the rough,
session of his black servant, was and passionate, and harsh manners
sold by him to Canon Pailye. It is of this great and good man. . . . That
also asserted by R. Polwhele that he was occasionally remarkable for
B , a Christ Church man, bought violence of temper may be granted ;
it of the same servant. Unless there but let us ascertain the degree, and
is some mistake in one of these not let it be supposed that he was in
accounts, the Canon or the Christ a perpetual rage, and never without
Church man, it seems, was tricked. a club in his hand, to knock down
It would be interesting to know every one who approached him. On
He
by Miss Reynolds. 297
He always carried a religious treatise in his pocket on a
Sunday I, and he used to encourage me to relate to him the
particular parts of Scripture I did not understand, and to write
them down as they occurred to me in reading the Bible.
One Sunday morning, as I was walking with him in Twicken
ham meadows, he began his antics both with his feet and hands,
with the latter as if he was holding the reins of a horse like a
jockey on full speed. But to describe the strange positions of
his feet is a difficult task ; sometimes he would make the back
part of his heels to touch, sometimes his toes, as if he was aiming
at making the form of a triangle, at least the two sides of one 2.
Though indeed, whether these were his gestures on this particular
occasion in Twickenham meadows I do not recollect, it is so
long since ; but I well remember that they were so extraordinary
that men, women, and children gathered round him, laughing.
At last we sat down on some logs of wood by the river side, and
they nearly dispersed ;. when he pulled out of his pocket Grotius
De Veritate Religionis 3, over which he seesawed at such a violent
rate as to excite the curiosity of some people at a distance to
come and see what was the matter with him.
As we were returning from the meadows that day, I remember
we met Sir John Hawkinsr whom Dr. Johnson seemed much
the contrary, the truth is, that by placent than he used to be. I was
much the greatest part of his time struck with the mild radiance of this
he was civil, obliging, nay, polite in setting sun.' Ante, ii. 201.
the true sense of the word.' Life, x Perhaps he did not always read
iii. 80. See also ante, i. 189. in it. Boswell records how in the
He grew milder as he grew older. Sunday he spent in Edinburgh : —
Miss Burney wrote in May : — ' He took down Ogden's Sermons on
' Dr. Johnson was charming, both in Prayer, and retired with them to his
spirits and humour. I really think room. He did not stay long, but
he grows gayer and gayer daily, and soon joined us in the drawing-room.'
more ductile and pleasant.3 Mme. Life, v. 29. The following Sunday
D'Arblay's Diary, ii. 23. Beattie, at Aberdeen, ' he borrowed a volume
a week or two later, wrote : — * John- of Massilloris Discourses on the
son grows in grace as he grows in Psalms-, but I found he read little
years. He has contracted a gentle- in it. Ogden too he sometimes took
ness of manner which pleases every up, and glanced at ; but threw it
body.' Beattie's Life, 1824, p. 289. down again.' Ib. v. 88.
Hannah More wrote in 1783 :— ' Dr. 2 Ante, ii. 274, n. i.
Johnson is more mild and com- 3 Life, i. 398, 454; ante, i. 157.
rejoiced
298 Recollections of Dr. Johnson
rejoiced to see ; and no wonder, for I have often heard him speak
of Sir John in terms expressive of great esteem and much
cordiality of friendship x. On his asking Dr. Johnson when he
had seen Dr. Hawkesworth, he roared out with great vehemency,
'Hawkesworth is grown a coxcomb, and I have done with him2/
We drank tea that afternoon at Sir John Hawkins's, and on
our return I was surprised to hear Dr. Johnson's minute criticism
on Lady Hawkins's dress, with every part of which almost he
found fault 3.
Few people, I have heard him say, understood the art of
carving better than himself ; but that it would be highly inde
corous in him to attempt it in company, being so near-sighted,
that it required a suspension of his breath during the operation 4.
It must be owned, indeed, that it was to be regretted that he
did not practise a little of that delicacy in eating, for he appeared
to want breath more at that time than usual. It is certain that
he did not appear to the best advantage at the hour of repast 5 ;
but of this he was perfectly unconscious, owing probably to his
being totally ignorant of the characteristic expressions of the
human countenance 6, and therefore he could have no conception
that his own expressed when most pleased any thing displeasing
to others ; for though, when particularly directing his attention
towards any object to spy out defects or perfections, he generally
succeeded better than most men 7 ; partly, perhaps, from a desire
to excite admiration of his perspicacity, of which he was not a
little ambitious — yet I have heard him say, and I have often
1 Ante, ii. 81. Hawkins lived at Sept. 24, 1764, quotes the opinion of
Twickenham. 'my poor little inoffensive friend
2 Malone says that 'Johnson was Hawkesworth.' Hume MSS., Royal
fond of him, but latterly owned that Society of Edinburgh. For what Bos-
Hawkesworth— who had set out a well calls his ' provoking effrontery/
modest, humble man — was one of see Life, i. 253.
the many whom success in the 3 Ante, i. 337.
world had spoiled. He was latterly, -4 According to Baretti Miss-
as Sir Joshua Reynolds told me, an Williams, though blind, often carved,
affected insincere man, and a great Life, ii. 99, n. 2. Boswell, who dined
coxcomb in his dress. He had no with Johnson more than once, does
literature whatever.' Prior's Malone, not mention who carved,
p. 441. 5 Ante, ii. 105. 6 Ante, i. 457.
F. Greville, writing to Hume on 7 Life, i. 41.
perceived
by Miss Reynolds.
299
perceived, that he could not distinguish any man's face half a
yard distant from him, not even his most intimate acquaintance.
And yet Dr. Johnson's character, singular as it certainly was
from the contrast of his mental endowments with the roughness
of his mariners, was, I believe, perfectly natural and consistent
throughout ; and to those who were intimately acquainted with
him must, I imagine, have appeared so. For being totally devoid
of all deceit, free from every tinge of affectation or ostentation x,
and unwarped by any vice, his singularities, those strong lights
and shades that so peculiarly distinguish his character, may the
more easily be traced to their primary and natural causes.
The luminous parts of his character, his soft affections, and I
should suppose his strong intellectual powers, at least the dignified
charm or radiancy of them, must be allowed to owe their origin
to his strict, his rigid principles of religion and virtue ; and the
shadowy parts of his character, his rough, unaccommodating
manners, were in general to be ascribed to those corporeal defects
that I have already observed naturally tended to darken his
perceptions of what may be called propriety and impropriety in
general conversation ; and of course in the ceremonious or
^artificial sphere of society gave his deportment so contrasting an
to the apparent softness and general uniformity of culti
vate manners.
perhaps the joint influence of these two primeval causes,
his intellectual excellence and his corporeal defects, mutually
contributed to give his manners a greater degree of harshness
in they would have had if only under the influence of one of
lem ; the imperfect perceptions of the one not unfrequently
Producing misconceptions in the other.
Besides these, many other equally natural causes concurred to
constitute the singularity of Dr. Johnson's character. Doubtless,
1 ' He had an abhorrence of affec
tation. Talking of old Mr. Langton,
of whom he said, " Sir, you will
seldom see such a gentleman, such
are his stores of literature, such his
knowledge in divinity, and such his
exemplary life ; " he added, " and
Sir, he has no grimace, no gesticula
tion, no bursts of admiration on
trivial occasions ; he never embraces
you with an overacted cordiality." '
Life, iv. 27. See ib. i. 470 for
Johnson's disapproval of ' studied
behaviour.'
the
300 Recollections by Miss Reynolds.
_____ ,
/
the progress of his education had a double tendency to brighten
and to obscure it. But I must observe, that this obscurity
\ (implying only his awkward uncouth appearance, his ignorance
\ of the rules of politeness, &c.) would have gradually disappeared
at a more advanced period, at least could have had no manner
of influence to the prejudice of Dr. Johnson's character, had it
not been associated with those corporeal defects above mentioned.
But, unhappily, his untaught, uncivilized manner seemed to render
every little indecorum or impropriety that he committed doubly
indecorous and improper.
ANECDOTES
BY WILLIAM SEWARD, F.R.S.*
OF music Dr. Johnson used to say that it was the only sensual
pleasure without vice2. European Magazine, 1795, P- 82.
Dr. Johnson was extremely averse to the present foppish
mode of educating children, so as to make them what foolish
mothers call ' elegant young men.' He said to some lady who
asked him what she should teach her son in early life, ' Madam,
to read, to write, to count ; grammar, writing, and arithmetic ;
three things which, if not taught in very early life, are seldom
or ever taught to any purpose, and without the knowledge of
which no superstructure of learning or of knowledge can be
built3.' Ib. p. 1 86.
The Doctor used to say that he once knew a man of so
vagabond a disposition, that he even wished, for the sake of
change of place, to go to the West Indies. He set off on this
expedition, and the Doctor saw him in town four months
1 These anecdotes are collected second definitions, as ' affecting the
from the European Magazine, senses' or 'pleasing to the senses,'
Seward's Anecdotes of Distinguished and not in the more limited sense
Persons, and his Biographiana. which it now bears. For his feelings
Boswell owns his obligation to him towards music, see ante, ii. 103.
' for several communications.' Life, 3 ' I hate by-roads in education,
iii. 123. For an account of him, see Education is as well known, and has
ib. n. i ; and Letters, i. 346, n. i. long been as well known as ever it
2 Johnson here uses sensual in the can be.' Life, ii. 407.
sense that he gives it in his first and For arithmetic, see ante, i. 281, 295.
afterwards
302 Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S.
afterwards. Upon asking him, why he had not put his plan
in execution, he replied, ' I have been returned these ten days
from the West Indies. The sight of slavery was so horrid to
me. that I could only stay two days in one of the islands V
This man, who had been once a man of literature, and a private
tutor to some young men of consequence, became so extremely
torpid and careless in point of further information, that the
Doctor, when he called upon him one day, and asked him to lend
him a book, was told by him, that he had not one in the house.
Dr. Johnson, on learning the death of a celebrated West India
Planter2, said, 'He is gone, I believe, to a climate in which he
will not find the country much warmer and the men much
blacker than that he has left.' Ib. p. 186.
Johnson was much pleased with a French expression made
use of by a lady towards a person whose head was confused
with a multitude of knowledge, at which he had not arrived
in a regular and principled way, — // a bdti sans fchafaud, —
'he has built without his scaffold.'
He was once told that a friend of his, who had long lived
in London, was about to quit it, to retire into the country, as
being tired of London. ' Say rather, Sir,' said Johnson, ' that
he is tired of life3.' European Magazine > 1797, p. 418.
Dr. Johnson said that he should be much pleased to write
the Life of that man [Bacon], from whose writings alone a
Dictionary of the English Language might be compiled 4.
1 Johnson described Jamaica as a Jamaica gentleman, then lately
'a place of great wealth and dread- dead : " He will not, whither he is
ful wickedness, a den of tyrants now gone, find much difference, I
and a dungeon of slaves.' Life, ii. believe, either in the climate or the
478. company." '
' Great merit,' wrote Franklin, ' is 3 ' No, Sir, when a man is tired of
assumed for the gentlemen of the London, he is tired of life ; for there
West-Indies, on the score of their is in London all that life can afford.'
residing and spending their money in Life, iii. 178. Charles Lamb, writing
England.' Franklin's Works, ed. to Wordsworth, speaks of 'the im-
1887, iii. 105. possibility of being dull in Fleet
* Perhaps Alderman Beckford. Street.' Lamb's Letters, i. 165.
Life,\\\. 76, 201. See ante, i. 211, 4 For my note on this, see Life, iii.
where he is reported to have said * of 194, n. 2. See also ante, ii. 229.
He
Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S. 303
He was one day in company with a very talkative lady, of
whom he appeared to take very little notice. * Why, Doctor,
I believe you prefer the company of men to that of the ladies.'
1 Madam,' replied he, ' I am very fond of the company of ladies ;
I like their beauty, I like their delicacy, I like their vivacity,
and I like their silence' European Magazine ', 1798, p. 92.
Johnson the day before he died was visited by Dr. Burney.
After having taken an affectionate leave of his old friend he
said, taking his hands between his, ' My good friend, do all the
good you can V
' You are my model, Sir/ said he to Dr. Burney, soon after
he published his Tour to the Hebrides. ' I had that clever dog
Burney's Musical Tour2 in my eye,' said he to many friends
on the same occasion. /#., p. 241.
A friend of Johnson, an indolent man, succeeding to a moderate
sum of money on the death of his father, asked the Doctor
how he should lay it out. ' Half on mortgage,' said he, ' and
half in the funds : you have then,' continued he, ' the two best
securities for it that your country can afford. Take care, how
ever, of the character of the person to whom you lend it on
mortgage; see that he is a man of exactness and regularity,
and lives within his income. The money in the funds you are
sure of at every emergency ; it is always at hand, and may be
resorted to on every occasion V /#., p. 302.
1 For a somewhat different version cheap as stinking mackerel/ Johnson
of this anecdote, see Life, iv. 410, writes : — * In former times the pros-
n. I. perity of the nation was known by
2 The Present State of Music in the value of land, as now by the price
France and Italy, I vol. 1771, and of stocks. Before Henry the Seventh
The Present State of Music in made it safe to serve the king regnant,
Germany, &>c.} 2 vols. 1773. Life, it was the practice at every revolution
iv. 1 86. for the conqueror to confiscate the
3 Dr. Johnson said : ' It is better estates of those that opposed, and
to have five/^r cent, out of land than perhaps of those who did not assist
out of money, because it is more se- him. Those, therefore, that foresaw
cure ; but the readiness of transfer and a change of Government, and thought
promptness of interest make many their estates in danger, were desirous
people rather choose the funds.' Life, to sell them in haste for something
iv. 164. In a note on Falstaff's that might be carried away.' John-
words, 'You may buy land now as son's Shakespeare, ed. 1765, iv. 165.
Dr.
304 Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S.
Dr. Johnson used to tell his friends that from time imme
morial a convict of the parish of St. Giles in the Fields had
the privilege of the right hand in the cart. /#., p. 303.
Dr. Johnson one day observing a friend of his packing up
the two volumes of Observations on Man, written by this great
and good man (Hartley) to take into the country, said, ' Sir,
you do right to take Dr. Hartley with you/ Dr. Priestley
said of him, * that he had learned more from Hartley, than from
any book he had ever read, except the Bible V
Johnson used to say of the Due de Rochefoucault that he was
one of the few gentlemen writers of whom authors by profession
had occasion to be afraid2. European Magazine, 1798, p.
374-
Dr. Johnson said that Busby used to declare that his rod
was his sieve, and that whoever could not pass through that
was no boy for him 3. He early discovered the genius of Dr.
South, lurking perhaps under idleness and obstinacy. * I see
1 Hartley is not, I think, men
tioned in any of Johnson's writings or
in Boswell. Priestley, in his Auto
biography, ed. 1810, p. 12, says of
Hartley's Observations on Man : —
' It produced the greatest, and in my
opinion, the most favourable effect
on my general turn of thinking
through life.'
If Johnson had heard Seward sup
porting Hartley's fame by Priestley's
praise, he would have knit his brows,
and in a stern manner enquired,
" Why do we hear so much of Dr.
Priestley ? " ' Life, iv. 238.
* It is known to most literary people
that Coleridge was, in early life, so
passionate an admirer of the Hart-
leian philosophy, that "Hartley"
was the sole baptismal name which
he gave to his eldest child ; and in
an early poem entitled Religious
Musings he has characterized Hart
ley as
" Him of mortal kind
Wisest, him first who marked the
ideal tribes
Up the fine fibres through the
sentient brain
Pass in fine surges."
But at present (August, 1807) all
this was a forgotten thing. Coleridge
was so profoundly ashamed of the
shallow Unitarianism of Hartley, and
so disgusted to think that he could
at any time have countenanced that
creed, that he would scarcely allow
to Hartley the reverence which is
undoubtedly his due.' De Quincey's
Works, ed. 1863, ii. 56.
2 Speaking of the Earl of Carlisle's
Poems, Johnson said 'that when a
man of rank appeared in that char
acter [as a candidate for literary
fame,] he deserved to have his merit
handsomely allowed.' Life, iv. 114.
3 'As we stood before Busby's
tomb the Knight [Sir Roger de Cover-
said
Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S. 305
(said he) great talents in that sulky boy, and I shall endeavour
to bring them out.' Seward's Anecdotes of Distinguished
Persons^ ii. 50.
Dr. Johnson always supposed that Mr. Richardson had Mr.
Nelson1 in his thoughts, when he delineated the character of
Sir Charles Grandison. Ib. ii. 91.
A friend of Dr. Johnson asked him one day, whose sermons
were the best in the English language. 'Why, Sir, bating
a little heresy those of Dr. Samuel Clarke2.' This great and
excellent man had indeed good reason for thus highly praising
them, as he told a relation of Dr. Clarke they made him a
Christian 3.
In his opinion Clarke was the most complete literary char
acter that England ever produced. Ib. ii. 313.
The late Lord North told Dr. Johnson4 that Sir Robert
Walpole had once got possession of some treasonable letters
of Mr. Shippen, and that he sent for him, shewed him the
letters, and burnt them before his face. Soon afterwards it
ley] uttered himself again after the almost rushed through, as if it were
same manner, " Dr. Busby, a great almost only one verse. Well, when
man ! he whipped my grandfather ; Handel wrote was just the time when
a very great man ! I should have Queen Caroline, wife of George II,
gone to him myself, if I had not been was supposed to be countenancing
a blockhead ; a very great man ! " ' the people who took the wrong side
The Spectator, No. 329. in the great Trinitarian controversy
1 Robert Nelson, the author of then raging. It would be curious, if
Festivals and Fasts. Ante, \. 221 n. that influenced a composition which,
3 For Clarke's heresy see ante, \. of course, would be talked about in
38, and for Queen Caroline's wish the court of the hero of Dettingen,
to make him a bishop see Life, iii. 1743.' Life and Letters of Dean
248 n. Dean Church, writing of Church, p. 392.
Handel's Te Deum, as performed in 3 For the effect of Law' s Serious
St. Paul's at the Queen's Jubilee, Call to a Holy Life on his mind, see
says : — * I noticed one thing which Life, i. 68.
perhaps is an over-refinement. The 4 ' I had once some business to do
least striking bit is the rendering of for government, and I went to Lord
the verses concerning the Three Per- North's. Precaution was taken that
sons — " The Father — Thine honour- it should not be known. It was dark
able, true, and only Son— Also the before I went ; yet a few days after
Holy Ghost, the Comforter." It is I was told, "Well, you have been
not dwelt on, but run through — with Lord North."' Ib. v. 248.
VOL. II. X was
306 Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S.
was necessary in a new parliament for Mr. Shippen to take
the oaths of allegiance to George II, when Sir Robert placed
himself over against him and smiled whilst he was sworn by
the Clerk. Mr. Shippen then came up to him and said ' Indeed,
Robin, this is hardly fair V Ib. ii. 335.
In a conversation with Dr. Johnson on the subject of the
Due de Montmorenci he said : ' Had I been Richelieu, I could
not have found it in my heart to have suffered the first Christian
baron to die by the hands of the executioner2.' Ib. iii. 234.
Dr. Johnson used to think Voltaire's Life of Charles XII of
Sweden one of the finest pieces of historical writing in any
language3. Ib. iv. 161.
Dr. Johnson said that he had been told by an acquaintance
of Sir Isaac Newton, that in early life he started as a clamorous
infidel ; but that, as he became more informed on the subject,
he was converted to Christianity, and became one of its most
zealous defenders4. Supplement to Sewarcfs Anecdotes, p. 98.
Dr. Johnson used to advise his friends to be upon their guard
against romantic virtue, as being founded upon no settled prin
ciple. c A plank,' added he, ' that is tilted up at one end must
of course fall down on the other.'
1 ' I love to pour out all myself as 2 ' Son supplice fut juste, si celui
plain de Marillac ne 1'avait pas dte : mais
As downright Shippen, or as old la mort d'un homme de si grande
Montaigne/ esperance, qui avait gagne* des ba-
Pope, Imitations of Horace, Bk. tallies, et que son extreme valeur, sa
ii. Sat. i, 1. 51. ge'nerosite, ses graces avaient rendu
1 Shippen and Sir Robert Walpole cher a toute la France, rendit le
(writes Coxe) had always a personal Cardinal plus odieux que n'avait fait
regard for each other. He was fre- la mort de Marillac.' CEuvres de
quently heard to say, "Robin and Voltaire, ed. 1819, xvi. 101.
I are two honest men. He is for 3 * I admire no historians much
King George and I for King James, except Herodotus, Thucydides, and
but those men with long cravats Tacitus. . . . There is merit, no doubt,
(meaning Sandys, Sir John Rushout, in Hume, Robertson, Voltaire, and
Gybbon, and others) only desire Gibbon. Yet it is not the thing.'
places, either under King George or Macaulay's Life, ed. 1877, ii. 270.
King James ! " Coxe's Memoirs of 4 Life, i. 455.
Sir Robert Walpole, ed. 1798. i. 672.
In
Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S. 307
In a conversation with the Due de Chaulnes x, the duke said
to Johnson, ' that the morality of the different religions existing
in the world was nearly the same.' ' But you must acknowledge,
my lord,' said the Doctor, 'that the Christian religion alone
puts it upon its proper basis — the fear and love of God.' Ib.
p. 149.
Of Mrs. Montagu's elegant 'Essay upon Shakspeare,' he always
said, ' that it was ad hominem, that it was conclusive against
Voltaire ; and that she had done what she intended to do 2.'
Johnson's Preface to his edition of Shakspeare was styled
by Dr. Adam Smith, the most manly piece of criticism that was
ever published in any country3. Ib. p. 151.
Dr. Johnson used to apply to Lord Chatham Corneille's
celebrated lines to the Cardinal de Richelieu4. During the
American War he used to exclaim, ' Make Lord Chatham
Dictator for six months, and we shall hear no more of these
Rebels5.' Ib. p. 152.
1 Letters, ii. 362, n. 5.
2 ' JOHNSON. "Sir, I will venture
to say, there is not one sentence of
true criticism in her book." GARRICK.
" But, Sir, surely it shews how much
Voltaire has mistaken Shakspeare,
which nobody else has done." JOHN
SON. " Sir, nobody else has thought
it worth while. And what merit is
there in that? You may as well
praise a schoolmaster for whipping
a boy who has construed ill." ' Life,
ii. 88.
3 Adam Smith reviewed the Dic
tionary in the Edinburgh Review for
1755, No. i. Life, i. 298, n. 2. See
post under ADAM SMITH ON DR.
JOHNSON.
4 'Qu'on parle mal ou bien du
fameux Cardinal,
Ma prose ni mes vers n'en
diront jamais rien :
II m'a fait trop de bien pour
en dire du mal,
X
II m'a fait trop de mal pour
en dire du bien.'
Johnson wrote of Chatham: — 'For
whom it will be happy if the nation
shall at last dismiss him to nameless
obscurity, with that equipoise of
blame and praise which Corneille
allows to Richelieu.' Works, vi. 197.
For his violent attack on Chatham,
see Life, ii. 314. In 1778 he said
to Bos well : — ' Lord Chatham was
a Dictator ; he possessed the power
of putting the State in motion ; now
there is no power, all order is relaxed.'
Ib. iii. 356.
5 ' You talk, my Lords, of conquer
ing America ; of your numerous
friends there to annihilate the Con
gress, and your powerful forces to
disperse her army. I might as
well talk of driving them before me
with this crutch.' Lord Chatham,
quoted in Seward's Anecdotes^ iii.
389-
2 Dr.
308 Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S.
Dr. Johnson was observed by a musical friend of his to be
extremely inattentive at a concert, whilst a celebrated solo
player was running up the divisions and subdivisions of notes
upon his violin. His friend, to induce him to take greater
notice of what was going on, told him how extremely difficult
it was. ( Difficult do you call it, Sir?' replied the Doctor;
* I wish it were impossible V Ib. p. 267.
Dr. Johnson told Voltaire's antagonist Freron, that vir erat
acerrimi ingenii ac paucarum literarum 2 ; and Bishop War-
burton says of him, ' that he writes indifferently well upon every
thing3.' Ib. p. 274.
To some one who was complaining of his want of memory
Johnson said, ' Pray, Sir, do you ever forget what money you
are worth, or who gave you the last kick on your shins that
you had ? Now, if you would pay the same attention to what you
read as you do to your temporal concerns and your bodily
feelings, you would impress it as deeply in your memory4.'
Seward's Biographiana, p. 58.
Dr. Johnson said one day, in talking of the difference between
English and Scotch education, ' that if from the first he did not
come out a scholar, he was fit for nothing at all ; whereas (added
he) in the last a boy is always taught something that may be of
use to him ; and he who is not able to read a page of Tully will
1 Life, ii. 409 ; ante, ii. 103. Spiritual Europe : let him live, love
' La musique aujourd'hui n'est plus him, as he was and could not but
que Tart de exe'cuter des choses be ! Pitiable it is, no doubt, that
difficiles, et ce qui n'est que difficile a Samuel Johnson . . . should see
ne plait point a la longue.' Candide, nothing in the great Frederick but
ch. 25. " Voltaire's lackey ; " in Voltaire him-
2 Life, ii. 406. Johnson recorded self but a man acerrimi ingenii, pau-
at Paris on Oct. 14, 1775 : — 'In the .carwn literarum! Carlyle's Misc.
afternoon I visited Mr. Freron the Works, n.d. iii. 102.
journalist. He spoke Latin very 3 In a letter to Kurd, Warburton
scantily, but seemed to understand says, * Voltaire has fine parts and is
me.' Ib. p. 392. a real genius.' Letters from a late
'Johnson's culture is wholly Eng- Eminent Prelate, ist ed. p. 79.
lish ; that not of a Thinker but of 4 ' The true art of memory is the
a " Scholar": his interests are wholly art of attention.' The Idler, No. 74.
English ; he sees and knows nothing See Life, iii. 191 ; v. 68.
but England ; he is the John Bull of
be
Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S. 309
be able to become a surveyor, or to lay out a garden V Ib.
p. 197.
Sir Robert Walpole's general principle as a minister was
' Quieta non mover ey to let well alone.' This made Dr. Johnson
say of him, ' He was the best minister this country ever had ;
as if we would have let him (he speaks of his own violent
faction) he would have kept the country in perpetual peace 2.'
Ib. p. 554-
' What is written without effort (said Dr. Johnson) is in general
read without pleasure/ Ib. p. 260.
Dr. Johnson was of opinion that the happiest, as well as the
most virtuous, persons were to be found amongst those who
united with a business or profession a love of literature 3.
He was constantly earnest with his friends, when they had
thoughts of marriage, to look out for a religious wife4.
' A principle of honour or fear of the world,' added he, ' will
many times keep a man in decent order, but when a woman
loses her religion, she, in general, loses the only tie that will
restrain her actions. Plautus, in his Amphytrio5, makes Alcmena
say beautifully to her husband —
'Non ego illam mihi dotem duco esse, quae dos dicitur,
Sed pudicitiam, et pudorem, et sedatum cupidinem,
Deum metum, parentum amorem, et cognatum concordiam ;
Tibi morigera, atque Ut munifica sim bonis, prosim probis.'
Ib. p. 599.
1 Life, ii. 363 ; ante, ii. 48. 26, 1771 :— ' One always prefers the
2 For Johnson's attacks on Wai- wisdom of one's own age. My
pole, see Life,\. 129, 141. 'Walpole's father's maxim, Quieta non movere,
name,' says Smollett describing the was very well in those ignorant days,
last years of his ministry, 'was seldom The science of government is better
or never mentioned with decency, understood now — so, to be sure,
except by his own dependents.' Hist, whatever is, is right' Walpole's
of England, iii. 46. In 1773 'John- Letters, v. 292.
son called Mr. Pitt a meteor; Sir 3 Ante, i. 238 n.; ii. 13.
Robert Walpole a fixed star.' Life, 4 Life, ii. 76.
v. 339. 5 Act ii. sc. 2, 1. 209.
Horace Walpole wrote on March
He
3io Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S.
He was one day asked by Mr. Cator1 what the Opposition
meant by their flaming speeches and violent pamphlets against
Lord North's administration. ' They mean, Sir, rebellion/ said
he. ' they mean in spite to destroy that country which they are
not permitted to govern 2/ Ib. p. 600.
Mrs. Cotterell 3 having one day asked him to introduce her to
a celebrated writer ; ' Dearest Madam/ replied he, ' you had
better let it alone ; the best part of every author is in general
to be found in his book4/ This idea he has dilated with his
usual perspicuity and illustrated by one of the most appropriate
similes in the English language : — A transition from an author's
book to his conversation is too often like an entrance into a large
city after a distant prospect : remotely, we see nothing but spires
of temples, and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence
of splendour, grandeur, and magnificence ; but when we have
passed the gates we find it perplexed with narrow passages,
disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstruc
tions, and clouded with smoke 5. Ib. p. 600.
The learned and excellent Charles Cole6 having once men
tioned to him a book lately published on the Sacrament7, he
replied, ' Sir, I look upon the Sacrament as the palladium of
religion ; I hope that no profane hands will venture to touch
it.' Ib. p. 60 1.
On being asked in his last illness what physician he had sent
1 Ante, i. 349 #. ; Life, iv. 313. Paris, says: — 'Ceux qui pensent qu'il
2 Johnson said to Boswell in suffit de lire les livres qui s'y font se
1781 : — ' Between ourselves, Sir, I do trompent ; on apprend beaucoup plus
not like to give opposition the satis- dans la conversation des auteurs que
faction of knowing how much I dis- dans leurs livres.' CEuvres, ed. 1782,
approve of the ministry.' Life, iv. 100. ix. 238.
For his contempt of it, see also ib. iii. 5 Rambler, No. 14.
46, 356; iv. 8 1, 139; ante, i. 104. 6 Perhaps Charles Nalson Cole,
3 Letters, ii. 393. who edited Soame Jenyns's Works,
4 ' Admiration begins where ac- 1790.
quaintance ceases.' Rambler, No. 77. 7 Perhaps the book mentioned in
Rousseau, in Emile, speaking of Johnson's Letters, ii. 204.
for
Anecdotes by William Seward, F.R.S. 311
for, — 'Dr. Heberden,' replied he, 'ultimum Romanorum'1^ the
last of the learned physicians.' Ib. p. 601.
[The three following anecdotes attributed to Seward in
Croker's Boswell, ix. 255, I have failed to trace.]
Another admonition of his was, never to go out without some
little book or other in their pocket. 'Much time/ added he
* is lost by waiting, by travelling, &c., and this may be prevented,
by making use of every possible opportunity for improvement 2.'
' The knowledge of various languages,' said he, * may be kept
up by occasionally using bibles and prayer-books in them at
church.'
Sir Joshua Reynolds in his picture of the Infant Hercules,
painted for the Empress of Russia, in the person of Tiresias the
soothsayer, gave an adumbration of Johnson's manner3.
1 'Thou last of all the Romans, after looking earnestly in his face,
fare thee well.' said : — " I must give more colour to
Julius Caesar, Act v. sc. 3, 1. 99. my Infant Hercules." ' Leslie and
See Letters, ii. 95 n. ; ante, ii. 1 54 n. Taylor's Reynolds, ii. 483.
2 On his way to Harwich ' he had ' Reynolds himself, on taking leave
in his pocket Pomponius Mela de of it, previous to its departure for
Situ Orbis, which he read occa- Russia, said : — " there were ten pic-
sionally.' Life, i. 465. tures under it, some better, some
3 ' The subject he had chosen in worse." ' Northcote's Reynolds, ii.
allusion to the power of Russia, then 219.
in its infancy 1 have heard Mr. ' Mr. Walpole suggested to Sir
Rogers say that Reynolds, who was Joshua [for his picture for the Em-
always thinking of his art, was one press] the scene Deptford, and the
day walking near Beaconsfield, when time when the Czar Peter was re-
he met a fine rosy little peasant ceiving a ship-carpenter's dress, in
boy — a son of Burke's bailiff. Rey- exchange for his own, to work in the
nolds patted him on the head, and, dock.' H. More's Memoirs, ii. 21.
ANECDOTES BY GEORGE STEEPENS
[PUBLISHED in the European Magazine^ January, 1785, p. 51,
under the title of Johnsoniana. The editor says by way of
introduction : — ' Of the various anecdotes of Dr. Johnson which
have been given to the Public Papers we select the present
collection, as we have every reason to rely on their authenticity/
'These anecdotes were contributed by Steevens himself, and
if they are not altogether fictitious, their language is coloured by
their brutality/ W. P. COURTNEY, Diet. Nat. Biog. xi. 371.
One or two of them which are told by Boswell I have omitted.
Life, iv. 324. For Steevens's malignancy and untruthfulness see
ib. iii. 281 ; iv. 178, n. i.]
I HAVE been told, Dr. Johnson, says a friend, that your
translation of Pope's Messiah was made either as a common
exercise, or as an imposition for some negligence you had been
guilty of at College x. ' No, Sir,' replied the Doctor. ' At Pembroke
the former were always in prose 2, and to the latter 3 I would not
have submitted. I wrote it rather to shew the tutors what
I could do, than what I was willing should be done. It answered
1 Hawkins (p. 13) states that it 2 For one of Johnson's exercises in
was imposed on him on account of prose see ib. i. 60, n. 7.
his * absenting himself from early 3 ' Johnson never used the phrases
prayers.' According to Boswell he the former and the latter' Ib. iv.
was asked by his tutor to do it as 190.
a Christmas exercise. Life, i. 61.
my
Anecdotes by George Steevens.
my purpose ; for it convinced those who were well enough
inclined to punish me, that I could wield a scholar's weapon as
often as I was menaced with arbitrary inflictions. Before the
frequency of personal satire had weakened its effect, the petty
Tyrants of Colleges1 stood in awe of a pointed remark, or
a vindictive epigram. But since every man in his turn has
been wounded, no man is ashamed of a scar/
1 1 wrote (said Johnson) the first seventy lines in the Vanity of
Human Wishes in the course of one morning, in that small house
beyond the church [at Hampstead] 2. The whole number was
1 At the end of the Pembroke
buttery-book of Johnson's time I
found scribbled, probably by a ser
vitor : — ' Nothing is so imperious as
a Fellow of a college upon his own
dunghill, nothing so contemptible
abroad.'
Bentham entered Queen's College,
Oxford, at the age of twelve. ' His
tutor was a morose and gloomy per
sonage, sour and repulsive — a sort of
Protestant monk. His only anxiety
about his pupil was to prevent his
having any amusement.' Bentham's
Works, x. 37.
John James, who was at Queen's
College in 1778, writing of those on
the Foundation says : — * The more
I see of it, the more do I felicitate
myself that I did not enter upon it.
I could not bear to be so brow
beaten.' 'There is,' he says, 'such
an uncharitableness in the manners
of a college, such an unsociable
reserve, and disregard of each other's
welfare, that I never can think of
them without growing out of humour
with all about me.' Letters of Rad-
cliffe and James, pp. 56, 85.
Vicesimus Knox wrote in 1781 : —
* The principal thing required is
external respect from the juniors.
However ignorant or unworthy a
senior fellow may be, yet the slightest
disrespect is treated as the greatest
crime of which an academic can be
guilty.' Knox's Works, iv. 201.
The gentlemen -commoners, to
judge from Gibbon's account, were
not exposed to any of this tyranny.
The servitors suffered from it most.
The commoners, among whom was
Johnson, would have had less to
feel.
An undergraduate of Trinity Col
lege, Cambridge, of Bentley's time,
in his Imitation of an Ode of Horace
(iii. 2), says of the student : —
'With want and rigid College
laws
Let him inur'd betimes comply.*
Monk's Bentley, ii. 173.
2 ' Mrs. Johnson, for the sake of
country air, had lodgings at Hamp
stead, to which he resorted occasion
ally, and there the greatest part,' if
not the whole, of this Imitation was
written.' Life, i. 192. 'I wrote (he
said) a hundred lines of it in a day.'
Ib. ii. 15.
' Park says the house at which
Johnson used to lodge was the last
house in Frognal, southward, occu
pied in Park's time by'B. C. Stephen-
son, E sq.' Hewitt' s Northern Heights
of London, ed. 1869, p. 243.
Steevens lived at Hampstead. By
enclosing 'at Hampstead ' in brackets
composed
314 Anecdotes by George Steevens.
composed before I threw a single couplet on paper. The same
method I pursued in regard to the Prologue on opening Drury-
Lane Theatre. I did not afterwards change more than a word
in it, and that was done at the remonstrance of Garrick. I did
not think his criticism just ; but it was necessary he should be
satisfied with what he was to utter V
To a Gentleman who expressed himself in disrespectful terms
of Blackmore 2, one of whose poetic bulls he happened just then
to recollect, Dr. Johnson answered, ' I hope a blunder, after you
have heard what I shall relate, will not be reckoned decisive
against a poet's reputation. When I was a young man, I trans
lated Addison's Latin poem on the Battle of the Cranes and
Pygmies, and must plead guilty to the following couplet : —
' Down from the guardian boughs the nests they flung,
And kilVd the yet unanimated young 3 : '
And yet, I trust, I am no blockhead. — I afterwards changed the
the word kiltd into crush'd.'
When Dr. Percy first published his Collection of Ancient
English Ballads, perhaps he was too lavish in commendation of
the beautiful simplicity and poetic merit he supposed himself to
discover in them. This circumstance provoked Johnson to
observe one evening at Miss Reynolds^ tea table, that he could
rhyme as well, and as elegantly, in common narrative and con
versation4. For instance, says he,
he apparently wishes to show that enmity of the wits whom he provoked
it was there that Johnson told him more by his virtue than his dulness,
this fact. has been exposed to worse treatment
1 Life, i. 1 8 1. See ante, ii. 6n. than he deserved.' Works, viii. 49.
2 ' I defended Blackmore's sup- For Locke's admiration of Blackmore
posed lines, which have been ridiculed see Warton's Pope's Works, ed. 1822,
as absolute nonsense : — iv. 62 n.
"A painted vest Prince Voltiger 3 ' Omnia vastaret miles, foetusque
had on, necaret
Which from a naked Pict his Immeritos, vitamque abrumperet
grandsire won.'" imperfectam.'
Life, ii. 108. Addison's Works, ed. 1862, i. 240.
'Blackmore, by the unremitted 4 Life, ii. 212 ; Hi. 158.
As
*
Anecdotes by George Steevens. 315
As with my hat upon my head
I walk'd along the Strand,
I there did meet another man
With his hat in his hand.
Or to render such poetry subservient to my own immediate use,
I therefore pray thee, Renny1 dear,
That thou wilt give to me,
With cream and sugar soften'd well,
Another dish of tea.
Nor fear that I, my gentle maid,
Shall long detain the cup,
When once unto the bottom I
Have drunk the liquor up.
Yet hear, alas ! this mournful truth,
Nor hear it with a frown ; —
Thou canst not make the tea so fast
As I can gulp it down.
And thus he proceeded through several more stanzas, till the
Reverend Critic cried out for quarter.
'Pray,1 said Garrick's mother to Johnson, 'What is your
opinion of my son David ? ' ' Why, Madam,' replied the Doctor,
' David will either be hanged, or become a great man 2.'
When Bolingbroke died, and bequeathed the publication of his
works to Mallet, Johnson observed : — * His Lordship has loaded
a blunderbuss against Religion, and has left a Scoundrel to pull
the trigger3/ Being reminded of this a few years ago, the Doctor
exclaimed, ' Did I really say so?' 'Yes, Sir.' He replied, ' I am
heartily glad of it.'
' You knew Mr. Capel 4, Dr. Johnson ? ' ' Yes, Sir ; I have seen
1 For Johnson's abbreviations of as it is, he doth gabble monstrously." '
names see Life, ii. 258. Life, iv. 5.
2 Garrick was a pupil of Johnson's ' Defects of style apart, this preface
academy at Edial. Ante, ii. 237. was by far the most valuable contri-
3 Life, i. 268 ; ante, i. 408. bution to Shakespearian criticism
4 Edward Capell. •* Of the Preface that had yet appeared, and the text
to Capell's Shakespeare, Dr. Johnson was based upon a most searching
said : — " If the man would have come collation of all the Folios and of all
to me, I would have endeavoured to the Quartos known to exist at that
endow his purposes with words ; for, time His unequalled zeal and in-
him
316
Anecdotes by George Steevens.
him at Garrick's.' * And what think you of his abilities?' 'They
are just sufficient, Sir, to enable him to select the black hairs
from the white ones, for the use of the periwig-makers. Were
he and I to count the grains in a bushel of wheat for a wager, he
would certainly prove the winner.'
When one Collins, a sleep-compelling divine of Herefordshire,
with the assistance of Counsellor Hardinge, published a heavy
half-crown pamphlet against^ Mr. Steevens r, Garrick asked the
Doctor, what he thought of this attack on his coadjutor.
* I regard Collins's performance/ replied Johnson, ' as a great gun
without powder or shot.' When the same Collins afterwards
appeared as editor of Capel's Posthumous Notes on Shakespeare ,
with a preface of his own, containing the following words,
' A sudden and most severe stroke of affliction has left my mind
too much distracted to be capable [at present] of engaging in
such a task (that of a further attack on Mr. Steevens), though
I am prompted to it by inclination as well as duty 2, — the Doctor
asked to what misfortune the foregoing words referred. Being
dustry have never received from the
public the recognition they deserved.'
Cambridge Shakespeare, ed. 1891, i.
Preface, pp. 37-8.
1 John Collins was in charge of
the parish of Ledbury in Hereford
shire. In 1777, with the assistance
of George Hardinge, he published
an anonymous letter in refutation of
Steevens's criticisms of Capell. Capell
bequeathed to him a large sum of
money. Diet. Nat. Biog. xi. 371 ;
xxiv. 340.
Hardinge is aimed at in the follow
ing lines in Don Juan (Canto xiii.
stanza 88) : —
* There was the waggish Welsh
Judge, Jefferies Hardsman,
In his grave office so completely
skill'd,
That when a culprit came for
condemnation,
He had his judge's joke for con
solation.'
The title of the pamphlet \sA Letter
to George Hardinge^ Esq., on the sub
ject of a Passage in Mr. Steevens''
Preface to his Impressions of Shake
speare. London, 1777. 4to, price three
shillings. Lowndes's BibL Man. p.
2319.
2 Collins, in his Dedication to
Lord Dacre (not in his Preface),
accuses Steevens of ' having dressed
up his volumes [of Shakespeare]
throughout by appropriating to him
self, without reserve, whatever suited
his purpose from the present Author's
edition, with which he disclaims the
slightest acquaintance. Without this
detail the claim of the true owner to
what has been obtruded upon the
Public as the property of another is
left at large undecided and unas-
serted.' He continues in the words
quoted by Steevens, though after
* capable,' 'at present' has been
omitted.
told
Anecdotes by George Steevens. 317
told that the critic had lost his wife, Johnson added/ ' I believe
that the loss of teeth may deprave the voice of a singer, and that
lameness will impede the motions of a dancing master, but
I have not yet been taught to regard the death of a wife as
the grave of literary exertions. When my dear Mrs. Johnson
expired I sought relief in my studies, and strove to lose the
recollection of her in the toils of literature x. Perhaps, however,
I wrong the feelings of this poor fellow. His wife might have
held the pen in his name. Hinc illcz lachrymce"2. Nay, I think
I observe, throughout his two pieces, a woman's irritability, with
a woman's impotence of revenge.' Yet such were Johnson's
tender remembrances of his own wife, that after her death,
though he had a whole house at command, he would study
nowhere but in a garret. Being asked the reason why he chose
a situation so incommodious, he answered, ' Because in that room
only I never saw Mrs. Johnson3/
'What think you, Dr. Johnson, of Mr. M n's4 conversation?'
* I think, Sir, it is a constant renovation of hope, and an unvaried
succession of disappointment/
' My dear Sir, don't disturb my feelings (said Garrick to
Johnson one night behind the scenes); consider the exertions
I have to go through.' ' As to your feelings, David/ replied
Johnson, ' Punch has just as many ; and as for your exertions,
those of a man who cries turnips about the streets are
greater V
'Were you ever, Sir, in company with Dr. Warburton?'
{ I never saw him till one evening about a week ago, at the
Bishop of St. 's 6. At first he looked surlily at me ; but
1 See ante, i. 12, for his prayer 4 Macklin. Ante, ii. 2 n., and Life,
'as preparatory to his return to life ii. 122.
to-morrow.' 5 Ante, \. 457 ; ii. 438.
2 Terence, Andrta, i. I. 99. 6 The Bishop of St. Asaph. Bos-
3 It was in Gough Square that he well, who had seen this account,
was living at the time of her death, writes : — 'If I am rightly informed,
It was in an upper room, probably after a careful enquiry, they [John-
a garret, that his assistants in the son and Warburton] never met but
Dictionary worked. Life, i. 188. once, which was at the house of
after
Anecdotes by George Steevens.
after we had been jostled into conversation, he took me to
a window, asked me some questions, and, before we parted,
was so well pleased with me, that he patted me.' ' You always,
Sir, preserved a respect for him?' 'Yes, and justly. When
as yet I was in no favour with the world, he spake well of me,
and I hope I never forgot the obligation *.'
'Though you brought a Tragedy, Sir, to Drury-Lane2, and
at one time were so intimate with Garrick, you never appeared
to have much theatrical acquaintance.' — * Sir, while I had, in
common with other dramatic authors, the liberty of the scenes,
without considering my admission behind them as a favour,
I was frequently at the theatre. At that period all the wenches
knew me, and dropped me a curtsey as they passed on to the
stage3. But since poor Goldsmith's last Comedy, I scarce
recollect having seen the inside of a playhouse4. To speak
the truth, there is small encouragement there for a man whose
sight and hearing are become so imperfect as mine. I may
add, that, Garrick and Henderson 5 excepted, I never met with
Mrs. French, in London, well known
for her elegant assemblies, and bring
ing eminent characters together. The
interview proved to be mutually
agreeable.' Life, iv. 48.
1 In his Shakespeare he praised
Johnson's Observations on Macbeth.
Ib. i. 176. For Johnson's criticism
of him see ante, i. 381.
2 Ante, i. 386.
3 See Life, i. 201 for the ' considera
tions of rigid virtue' which, if Gar-
rick's story is to be trusted, kept
him from going any longer behind
the scenes.
4 For She Stoops to Conquer see
ib. iv. 325. Johnson went to Mrs.
Abington's benefit two years later.
Ib. ii. 324.
5 Johnson, speaking to Henderson
' of a certain dramatic writer, said,
" I never did the man an injury ; but
he would persist in reading his
tragedy to me." ' Life, iv. 244, n. 2.
The man was Joseph Reed, the
author of Dido. Nichols, Lit. Anec.
ix. 1 1 6.
Henderson died less than a year
after Johnson (Gentleman's Maga
zine, 1785, p. 923), and was buried
in Westminster Abbey close to him.
See the Plan in Stanley's Westminster
Abbey, ed. 1868, p. 268.
' Cumberland said that the three
finest pieces of acting which he
had ever witnessed were Garrick's
Lear, Henderson's Falstaff, and
Cooke's lago.' Rogers's Table-Talk,
p. 136.
Macaulay, recording a voyage to
Dublin, during which ' he went
through Paradise Lost in his head,'
says : — ' In the dialogue at the end
of the fourth book Satan and Gabriel
became to me quite like two of
Shakespeare's men. Old Sharp once
told me that Henderson the actor
used to say to him that there was no
a performer
Anecdotes by George Steevens. 319
a performer who had studied his art, or could give an intelligible
reason for what he did V
Though Dr. Johnson was no enemy to a proper and well-
timed compliment, he would sometimes express his dislike of
awkward and hyperbolical adulation. To a literary dame 2,
who had persecuted him throughout a whole afternoon with
coarse and incessant flattery (after making several fruitless efforts
to stop her career), he said, and loud enough for half the
company present to hear — 'My dear, before you are so lavish
of your praise, you ought to consider whether it be worth
having.'
* I am convinced (said he to a friend) I ought to be present
at divine service more frequently than I am ; but the provo
cations given by ignorant and affected preachers too often
disturb the mental calm which otherwise would succeed to
prayer3. I am apt to whisper to myself on such occasions —
How can this illiterate fellow dream of fixing attention, after
we have been listening to the sublimest truths, conveyed in
the most chaste and exalted language, throughout a Liturgy
which must be regarded as the genuine offspring of piety
impregnated by wisdom ? Take notice, however — though I
make this confession respecting myself, I do not mean to
recommend the fastidiousness that led me to exchange con
gregational for solitary worship.' — Dr. Johnson, notwithstanding,
was at Streatham church when the unfortunate Dodd's first
application to him was made. The Doctor went out of his
pew immediately, wrote a suitable reply to the letter he had
better acting scene in the English boards, and on the whole has always
drama than this. I now felt the seemed to me a vain, foolish woman
truth of the criticism.' Trevelyan's spoiled (and no wonder) by un-
Macaulay, ed. 1877, ii. 265. bounded adulation to a degree that
1 ' I should like (wrote Sir Walter deserved praise tasted faint on her
Scott), if it were possible, to ana- palate.' Familiar Letters, Boston,
tomize Mrs. Siddons' intellect, that 1894, ii. 42.
we might discover in what her un- 2 Hannah More. Ante, i. 273 ;
rivalled art consisted; she has not ii. 179^.
much sense, and still less sound 3 For his l great reluctance to go
taste, no reading but in her pro- to Church,' see Life, i. 67, and for his
fession, and with a view to the irregular attendance, ante, i. 81.
received
320 Anecdotes by George Steevens.
received, and afterwards, when he related this circumstance,
added, — * I hope I shall be pardoned, if for once I deserted
the service of God for that of man V
On the night before the publication of the first edition of
his Shakespeare2, he supped with some friends in the Temple,
who kept him up, ' nothing loth3/ till past five the next morning.
Much pleasantry was passing on the subject of commentatorship ;
when, all on a sudden, the Doctor, looking at his watch, cried
out — ' This is sport to you, gentlemen ; but you do not con
sider there are at most only four hours between me and
criticism/
Previous to this convivial meeting, Mr. Tonson4 had desired
a gentleman to ask our Author if he could ascertain the number
of his subscribers? * No,' replied the Doctor; 'two material
reasons forbid even a guess of mine on the subject — I have lost
all the names, and spent all the money. It came in small
portions, and departed in the same manner5/ — There were
afterwards receipts for near a thousand copies carried in to
Tonson 6.
* I have seldom met with a man whose colloquial ability
exceeded that of Mallet7. I was but once in Sterne's company,
and then his only attempt at merriment consisted in his display
of a drawing too indecently gross to have delighted even in
a brothel8. Colman never produced a luckier thing than his
first Ode in ridicule of Gray. A considerable part of it may
be numbered among those felicities which no man has twice
1 He was in church, Boswell says, 7 'His conversation was elegant
when a later letter of Dodd's reached and easy. The rest of his character
him. ' He stooped down and read may, without injury to his memory,
it, and wrote when he went home the sink into silence.' Works, viii. 468 ;
following letter for Dr. Dodd to the Life, i. 268, n. I.
King.' Life, iii. 144. 8 In Murray's Johnsoniana, ed.
2 Life, i. 496. 1836, p. 133, Sterne is changed into
3 Paradise Lost, ix. 1039. Hume. 'JOHNSON. "The man Sterne,
4 Life, i. 227, n. 3. I have been told, has had engagements
* Ib. iv. in. for three months." GOLDSMITH.
6 For each copy Johnson, I believe, " And a very dull fellow." JOHNSON.
received a guinea. Letters, i. 68 , " Why no, Sir." ' Life, ii. 222.
124, n. 2.
attained
Anecdotes by George Steevens.
321
attained1. Gray was the very Torre2 of poetry. He played
his coruscations so speciously, that his steel-dust is mistaken
by many for a shower of gold.'
At one period of the Doctor's life, he was reconciled to the
bottle3. Sweet wines, however, were his chief favourites-
When none of these were before him, he would sometimes
drink Port, with a lump of sugar in every glass4. The strongest
liquors, and in very large quantities, produced no other effect
on him than moderate exhilaration. Once, and but once, he
is known to have had his dose 5 ; a circumstance which he
himself discovered, on finding one of his sesquipedalion words
hang fire. He then started up, and gravely observed — ' I think
it time we should go to bed 6.' After a ten years' forbearance
1 ' The Odes to Obscurity and Ob
livion, in ridicule of "cool Mason
and warm Gray," being mentioned,
Johnson said, " They are Colman's
best things." ' Life, ii. 334.
Gray wrote of them in July, 1760 : —
* I believe his Odes sell no more than
mine did, for I saw a heap of them
lie in a bookseller's window, who
recommended them to me as a very
pretty thing.' Gray's Works, ed.
1858, iii. 250.
* Gray (to whom nothing is want
ing to render him, perhaps, the first
poet in the English language but to
have written a little more) is said to
have been so much hurt by a foolish
and impertinent parody of two of his
finest odes, that he never afterwards
attempted any considerable work.'
Adam Smith's Theory of Moral
Sentiments, ed. 1801, i. 255.
2 See Life, iv. 324, for Johnson's
going to see ' the celebrated Torre's
fireworks at Marybone Gardens.'
3 Ib. i. 103, n. 3 ; ante, i. 217.
4 It is not to be supposed that
when * University College witnessed
him drink three bottles of port with
out being the worse for it' (ib. iii.
VOL. II. Y
245), he put a lump of sugar into
every one of his thirty-six glasses.
No Oxford common-room would have
stood it. Boswell, who drank port
with him till either the wine made
his head ache, or the sense his friend
put into it (ib. iii. 381), makes no
mention of this sugar.
5 ' Dose is often used of the utmost
quantity of strong liquor that a man
can swallow. He has his dose, that
is, he can carry off no more.' John
son's Dictionary.
6 ' Sir Joshua informed a friend
that he had never seen Dr. Johnson
intoxicated by hard drinking but
once, and that happened at the time
that they were together in Devon
shire, when one night after supper
Johnson drank three bottles of wine,
which affected his speech so much
that he was unable to articulate
a hard word, which occurred in the
course of his conversation. He at
tempted it three times but failed ; yet
at last accomplished it, and then
said, " Well, Sir Joshua, I think it is
now time to go to bed.'" North-
cote's Life of Reynolds, ii. 161.
Johnson did not say * Sir Joshua,'
of
322 Anecdotes by George Steevens.
of every fluid, except tea and sherbet, * I drank/ said he, ' one
glass of wine to the health of Sir Joshua Reynolds, on the
evening of the day on which he was knighted. I never swallowed
another drop till old Madeira was prescribed to me as a cordial
during my present indisposition x, but this liquor did not relish
as formerly, and I therefore discontinued it.'
Every change, however, in his habits, had invariable reference
to that insanity which, from his two-and-twentieth year, he
had taught himself to apprehend2. Whether he had once
suffered from a temporary alienation of mind, or expected it
only in consequence of some obscure warning he supposed
himself to have received, will always remain a secret. To
dispel the gloom that so constantly oppressed him, he had
originally recourse to wine. Afterwards, he suspected danger
from it3: 'For (said he) what ferments the spirits may also
derange the intellects, and the means employed to counteract
dejection may hasten the approach of madness. Even fixed,
substantial melancholy is preferable to a state in which we can
neither amend the future, nor solicit mercy for the past.'
Impressed as he was with such ideas, each precaution he could
adopt appeared hazardous in its turn. Even his favourite tea
had been gradually drunk by him in reduced quantities, and
at last was totally laid aside. Milk 4 became its substitute ;
and he looked forward to the spring, when he expected his
new beverage would prove yet more salutary. ' Perhaps (says
he) I shall conclude with what I ought to have begun. Milk
was designed for our nutriment ; tea and similar potations are
all adscititious.'
as it was in 1762 that they visited son) should be diverted by every
Devonshire ; Reynolds was knighted means but drinking.' Life, iii. 5.
on April 2 1, 1 769. Taylor's Reynolds, See also ib. i. 277, n. i.
i. 321. * On Nov. 14, 1781, he wrote:—
* I used to slink home (Johnson ' Here is Doctor Taylor, by a reso-
said) when I had drunk too much.' lute adherence to bread and milk,
Life, iii. 389. See also ib. i. 94. with a better appearance of health
1 Ib. iv. 72. than he has had for a long time past.'
2 Ib. 1.63 ; iii. 175 ; ante, i. 472. Letters^ ii. 236.
3 ' Melancholy, indeed (said John-
At
Anecdotes by George Steevens. 323
At last, perhaps, his death was accelerated by his own im
prudence. If 'a little learning is a dangerous thing1' on any
speculative subject, it is eminently more so in the practical
science of physic. Johnson was too frequently his own patient 2.
In October, [1784,] just before he came to London, he had
taken an unusual dose of squills, but without effect 3. He
swallowed the same quantity on his arrival here, and it pro
duced a most violent operation. He did not, as he afterwards
confessed, reflect on the difference between the perished and
inefficacious vegetable he found in the country, and the fresh
and potent one of the same kind he was sure to meet with
in town. 'You find me at present,' says he, * suffering from
a prescription of my own. When I am recovered from its
consequences, and not till then, I shall know the true state
of my natural malady.1 From this period, he took no medicine
without the approbation of Heberden. What follows is known
by all, and by all lamented — ere now, perhaps — even by the
prebends of Westminster 4.
Dr. Johnson confessed himself to have been sometimes in
the power of bailiffs. Richardson, the author of Clarissa, was
his constant friend on such occasions 5. ' I remember writing to
him/ said Johnson, ' from a sponging house ; and was so sure
of my deliverance through his kindness and liberality, that,
before his reply was brought, I knew I could afford to joke
with the rascal who had me in custody, and did so, over a pint
of adulterated wine, for which, at that instant, I had no money
to pay6.'
1 POPE, Essay on Criticism, 1. 215. 6 Life, i. 304 n.
* Life, iii. 152; Letters, ii. 165 n. Johnson defines a spunging-house
3 On August 1 6 he had written to as 'a house to which debtors are
Dr. Brocklesby: — 'The squills I have taken before commitment to prison,
not neglected ; for I have taken more where the bailiffs sponge upon them,
than 100 drops a day, and one day or riot at their cost.' Why in all
took 250.' On the iQth he wrote: — likelihood Johnson ordered the wine
' The squills have every suffrage, and is explained in the following passage
in the squills we will rest for the in Fielding's Amelia, Bk. viii. ch.
present.' Life, iv. 355. 10 : — '"What say you (said the
4 Ante, i. 449 n. ; ii. 137 n. bailiff to Booth) to a glass of white
5 Life, i. 303 ; Letters, i. 61. wine, or a tiff of punch, by way of
Y 2, It
324
Anecdotes by George Steevens.
It has been already observed, that Johnson had lost the sight
of one of his eyes1. Mr. Ellis2, an ancient gentleman now
whet ? " " I have told you, Sir,
I never drink in the morning," cries
Booth a little peevishly. " No offence,
I hope, Sir," said the bailiff; " I hope
I have not treated you with any in
civility. I don't ask any gentleman
to call for liquor in my house, if he
doth not choose it ; nor I don't
desire anybody to stay here longer
than they have a mind to. — New
gate, to be sure, is the place for all
debtors that can't find bail. ... I'd
have you consider that the twenty-
four hours appointed by Act of
Parliament are almost out ; and so
it is time to think of removing." . . .
"I did not think (said Booth) to have
offended you so much by refusing to
drink in a morning." '
In Joseph Andrews, Bk. iii. ch. 3,
the prison is described to which the
debtor was transferred ; where ' he
was crowded in with a great number
of miserable wretches, in common
with whom he was destitute of every
convenience of life, even that which
all the brutes enjoy, wholesome air.'
See also Jonathan Wild, Bk. i. ch. 4.
John Howard describes how 'all
sorts of prisoners are confined
together; debtors and felons.' 'One
cause (he adds) why the rooms in
some prisons are so close is perhaps
the window-tax, which the gaolers
have to pay ; this tempts them to
stop the windows, and stifle their
prisoners. In many Gaols, and in
most Bridewells, there is no allow
ance of straw for prisoners to sleep
on. The frequent effect of confine
ment in prison seems generally under
stood, and shews how full of em-
phatical meaning is the curse of a
severe creditor, who pronounces his
debtor's doom to ROT IN GAOL.'
State of the Prisons, ed. 1777, pp.
15-17.
In the Annual Register, 1769, i.
114, is the account of a discharge of
a debtor after twenty- seven years'
imprisonment, under an Act for the
Relief of Insolvent Debtors. He had
not been guilty of ' fraudulent inten
tion,' neither had he been 'a debtor
to the Crown,' otherwise he would
not have had the benefit of the Act.
Gentleman's Magazine, 1769, p. 266.
1 Life. i. 41.
2 ' It is wonderful, Sir (said John
son), what is to be found in London.
The most literary conversation that
I ever enjoyed was at the table of
Jack Ellis, a money-scrivener, behind
the Royal Exchange, with whom I at
one period used to dine generally
once a week.' Ib. iii. 21.
Jeremy Bentham said, ' I supped
at the Mitre Tavern once, when they
exhibited a complete service of plate.
We came to hear Johnson's good
things. There was Bickerstaff, —
there was Ellis, the last scrivener of
the City of London, who died at the
age of ninety-four, a pleasant old
fellow, — there was Hoole, and there
was Goldsmith. But I was angry
with Goldsmith for writing the
Deserted Village. I liked nothing
gloomy ; besides it was not true,
for there were no such villages.'
Bentham's Works, x. 124. Bentham's
father had been Clerk to the
Scriveners' Company. Ib. p. 279.
Milton's father and Gray's father
were scriveners. Johnson's Works,
vii. 66 ; viii. 476.
Johnson defines money scrivener
as 'one who raises money for others,'
and quotes a passage from Arbuthnot,
where it is said : — ' Such fellows are
living
Anecdotes by George Steevens. 325
living (author of a very happy burlesque translation of the
thirteenth book, added to the ^Eneid by Maffei Vegio r), was
in the same condition ; but, some years after, while he was at
Margate, the sight of his eye unexpectedly returned, and that
of its fellow became as suddenly extinguished. Concerning the
particulars of this singular but authenticated event, Dr. John
son was studiously inquisitive, and not without reference to
his own case. Though he never made use of glasses to assist
his sight, he said he could recollect no production of art to
which man has superior obligations 2. He mentioned the name
of the original inventor 3 of spectacles with reverence, and ex
pressed his wonder that not an individual, out of the multitudes
who had profited by them, had, through gratitude, written the
life of so great a benefactor to society.
His knowledge in manufactures was extensive, and his com
prehension relative to mechanical contrivances was still more
extraordinary4. The well known Mr. Arkwright pronounced
him to be the only person who, on a first view, understood both
the principle and powers of his most complicated piece of
machinery5.
like your wire-drawing mills, if they thing like what are now called
get hold of a man's finger they will spectacles were in use at least several
pull in his whole body at last.' years earlier.' Penny Cyclopaedia,
Scrivener he defines as : — ' I. One xxii. 328. See also ib. iii. 244.
who draws contracts. 2. One whose 4 * Dr. Johnson this morning ex-
business is to place money at interest.' plained to us all the operation of
'The Company of Scriveners, being coining, and, at night, all the opera-
reduced to low circumstances, thought tion of brewing, so very clearly, that
proper to sell their Hall in Noble Mr. M'Queen said, when he heard
Street to the Coachmakers' Com- the first, he thought he had been
pany.' Dodsley's London, 1761, v. bred in the Mint; when he heard
323. the second, that he had been bred
1 Life, iii. 21, n. i. a brewer.' Life, v. 215. ' Last night
2 Swift refused to use them. Post, he gave us an account of the whole
p. 343 n. process of tanning — and of the nature
3 ' Some writers attribute the in- of milk, and the various operations
vention to Alexander Spina, a monk upon it, as making whey, &c.' Ib.
of Pisa, who died about 1299 or v.246. See also ib. v. 124 for his talk
1300 ; but the invention of magnify- about the manufacture of gunpowder,
ing-glasses by Roger Bacon, who p. 263 for his talk about threshing
died some years before that time, and thatching, and ante, ii. 118.
justifies the supposition that some- 5 Johnson was well acquainted with
Dr.
326 Anecdotes by George Steevens.
Dr. Johnson delighted in the company of women. 'There
are few things,' he would say, * that we so unwillingly give up,
even in an advanced age, as the supposition that we have still
the power of ingratiating ourselves with the Fair Sex.' Among
his singularities, his love of conversing with the prostitutes
whom he met with in the streets was not the least. He has
been known to carry some of these unfortunate creatures into
a tavern, for the sake of striving to awaken in them a proper
sense of their condition. His younger friends now and then
affected to tax him with less chastised intentions. But he would
answer — * No Sir ; we never proceeded to the Opus Magnum.
On the contrary, I have rather been disconcerted and shocked
by the replies of these giddy wenches, than flattered or diverted
by their tricks. I remember asking one of them for what
purpose she supposed her Maker had bestowed on her so much
beauty ? Her answer was — " To please the gentlemen, to be
sure ; for what other use could it be given me x ? "
The Doctor is known to have been, like Savage, a very late
visitor 2 ; yet at whatever hour he returned, he never went to
bed without a previous call on Mrs. Williams, the blind lady
who for so many years had found protection under his roof2.
Coming home one morning between four and five, he said to
her, ' Take notice, Madam, that for once I am here before others
are asleep. As I returned into the court, I ran against a knot
of bricklayers.' ' You forget, my dear Sir,' replied she, ' that
these people have all been a-bed, and are now preparing for
their day's work.' ' Is it so, then, Madam ? I confess that
circumstance had escaped me3.'
* Garrick, I hear, complains that I am the only popular author
the spinning-machine invented by ing home from Brookes's about day-
Lewis Paul, which was in many re- break used frequently to pass the
spects imitated by Arkwright in his stall of a cobbler who had already
machine. Letters, i. 6, n. 3. commenced his work. As they were
1 Life, i.223». ; iv. 321, 396; ante, the only persons stirring in that
ii. 213. quarter, they always saluted each
2 Life, i. 421. other. "Good night, friend," said
3 'The Duke of Devonshire [the the Duke. "Good morning, Sir,"
husband of the beautiful Duchess said the cobbler.' Rogers' s Table-
whom Reynolds painted] when walk- Talk, p. 191.
of
Anecdotes by George Steevens.
327
of his time, who has exhibited no praise of him in print x ; but he
is mistaken ; Akenside has forborn to mention him 2. Some,
indeed, are lavish in their applause of all who come within the
compass of their recollection. Yet he who praises everybody
praises nobody. When both scales are equally loaded, neither
can preponderate3.'
Perhaps, said a gentleman, a CongJ (PElire has not the force
of a positive command, but implies only a strong recommenda
tion. — ' Yes (replied Johnson, who overheard him), just such
a recommendation as if I should throw you out of a three pair of
stairs window, and recommend you to fall to the ground V
1 ' I complained that he had not
mentioned Garrick in his Preface to
Shakspeare; and asked him if he
did not admire him. JOHNSON.
"Yes, as 'a poor player, who frets
and struts his hour upon the stage ; '
—as a shadow." BOSWELL. "But
has he not brought Shakspeare into
notice?" JOHNSON. "Sir, to allow
that, would be to lampoon the age.'"
Life, ii. 92.
He did worse than not mention
him in the Preface; he reflected
upon him, though not by name, as
' a not very communicative collector '
of rare copies of Shakespeare. Id.
ii. 192. However he cited him in
his Dictionary. Ib. iv. 4. In the
Preface he says : — ' My purpose was
to admit no testimony of living
authors, that I might not be misled
by partiality, and that none of my
contemporaries might have reason to
complain ; nor have I departed from
this resolution, but when some per
formance of uncommon excellence
excited my veneration, when my
memory supplied me from late books
with an example that was wanting,
or when my heart, in the tenderness
of friendship, solicited admission for
a favourite name.' Works, v. 39.
For his mention of Garrick in the
Lives of the Poets, see Life, i. 8l.
2 Johnson must have got the know
ledge of this fact second-hand, for he
could not read Akenside' s Pleasures
of Imagination through. Ib. ii. 164.
3 'Sur quelque pre'fe'rence une
estime se fonde,
Et c'est n'estimer rien qu' es-
timer tout le monde.'
Moliere, Le Misanthrope, i. I.
4 * A gentleman having said that
a conge" oTdire ' has not, perhaps, the
force of a command, but may be
considered only as a strong recom
mendation ; " Sir, (replied Johnson,
who overheard him,) it is such a re
commendation, as if I should throw
you out of a two-pair of stairs window,
and recommend to you to fall soft." '
Life, iv. 323.
Boswell says in a note: — 'This
has been printed in other publica
tions, "fall to the ground" But
Johnson himself gave me the true
expression which he had used as
above ; meaning that the recommen
dation left as little choice in the one
case as the other.'
Johnson, in his Dictionary, says
that: — 'Conge* d'Elire signifies, in
common law, the King's permission
royal to a dean and chapter, in time
of vacation, to choose a bishop.'
The
328
Anecdotes by George Steevens.
[The following anecdote included by Croker in Steevens's
Collection is not given in the European Magazine for January,
1785]-
* Night,' Mr. Tyers has told us, * was Johnson's time for
composition1/ But this assertion, if meant for a general one,
can be refuted by living evidence. Almost the whole Preface to
Shakespeare, and no inconsiderable part of the Lives of the Poets,
were composed by daylight, and in a room where a friend 2 was
employed by him in other investigations. His studies were only
continued through the night when the day had been preoccupied,
Blackstone, after citing the statute
25 Hen. VIII. c. 20, continues :— ' If
such dean and chapter do not elect
in the manner by this act appointed
. . . they shall incur all the penalties
of & praemunire? Commentaries, ed.
1775. i- 379-
When, in 1847, the Dean of
Hereford, holding the opinion of
1 the gentleman ' of the anecdote, in
formed the Prime-minister, Lord
John Russell, that he would not
comply with the conge d'elire by
electing Dr. Hampden, Lord John
replied : — ' Sir, I have had the honour
to receive your letter of the 22nd
inst., in which you intimate to me
your intention of violating the law.
I have, &c.,
J. RUSSELL/
Walpole's Life of Lord J. Russell,
i. 480.
At the confirmation of Hampden's
election in Bow Church, ' after the
judge had told the opposers that he
could not hear them, the citation for
opposers to come forward was re
peated, at which the people present
laughed out, as at a play.' H. C.
Robinson's Diary, 1869, iii. 311.
'The truth of it is, a woman
seldom asks advice before she has
bought her wedding-clothes. When
she has made her own choice, for
form's sake she sends a conge d'elire
to her friends.' Addison, The Spec
tator, No. 475.
1 Post, p. 346.
2 Mr. Croker is probably right in
saying that this friend was Steevens
himself. Nevertheless there is no
thing to show what those investiga
tions were in which he was engaged
while Johnson was writing the Preface
to Shakespeare. In 1766, the year
after it was published, Steevens
brought out twenty plays of Shake
speare in four volumes. ' A coalition
having been effected between him
and Johnson, another edition made
its appearance in 1773.' Nichols,
Lit. Hist. v. 428. A second of these
joint editions was published in 1778,
and a third in 1785. Lowndes, BibL
Man. p. 2270. That in preparing
his notes for all three editions he
often worked in Johnson's room is
very likely. He lived at the top of
Hampstead Heath, in a house still
standing. ' He was always an early
riser, and rarely failed walking to
London and back.' His custom was
to call at Isaac Reed's in Staple Inn
by 7 o'clock in the morning, where
he found a room ready. Later on in
the day ' he generally passed some
time with Dr. Johnson.' When
carrying his last edition through the
or
Anecdotes by George Steevens. 329
or proved too short for his undertakings. Respecting the fertility
of his genius, the resources of his learning, and the accuracy of
his judgment, the darkness and the light were both alike T.
press, during eighteen months he left Frank, ' took bribes for denying his
his house at one in the night with master to others, when Mr. Steevens
the Hampstead patrole. Nichols, wanted his assistance in his Shake-
Lit. Hist. v. 427. speare?
Miss Hawkins (Memoirs, i. 153) * * The darkness and light to thee
says that Johnson's man-servant, are both alike.' Psalms, cxxxix. II.
ANECDOTES
BY THE REV. PERCIVAL STOCKDALE
[FROM Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Per civ al Stockdale.
2, vols. 8vo, 1809, (vol. ii. pp. 44, 59, 64, 185, 189). For a brief
account of Stockdale see Life, ii. 113.
In 1776 Garrick wrote to Lord Sandwich, the first Lord of the
Admiralty, to ask for leave of absence for Stockdale, who was
a sea-chaplain. Sandwich replied : — ' I fear the attending in
London upon a literary business and the duty of a sea-chaplain
are incompatible. ... If a fortnight's leave of absence would
enable him to finish his pamphlet, I could strain a point to
make it easy to him.' Garrick thanked him for having ' bestowed
a great favour upon a man of letters and talents when he most
wanted it.' Garrick Corres. ii. 173.]
ABOUT the year 1770, I was invited by the lively and hos
pitable Tom Davies to dine with him, to meet some interesting
characters. Dr. Johnson was of the party, and this was my first
introduction to him : there were others, with whom every
intelligent mind would have wished to converse, — Dr. Goldsmith
and Mr. Meyer, the elegant miniature painter x. Swift was one
of our convivial subjects ; of whom it was Dr. Johnson's invariable
1 Jeremiah Meyer. It was at the of his presidency and his seat as an
election of his successor as a Royal Academician. Leslie and Taylor's
Academician that the dispute arose Reynolds , ii. 570.
which led to Reynolds's resignation
custom
Anecdotes by the Rev. Percival Stockdale. 331
custom to speak in a disparaging and most unworthy manner x.
We gave our sentiments, and undoubtedly of high panegyric,
on the Tale of a Tub] of which Dr. Johnson insisted, in his usual
positive manner, that it was impossible that Swift should have
been the author, it was so eminently superior to all his other
works2. I expressed my own conviction, that it was written
by Swift, and that, in many of his productions, he showed
a genius not unequal to the composition of the Tale of a Tub.
The Doctor desired me to name one. I replied, that I thought
Gulliver's Travels 3 not unworthy of the performance he so ex
clusively admired. He would not admit the instance ; but said,
that ' if Swift was really the author of the Tale of a Tub, as the
best of his other performances were of a very inferior merit,
he should have hanged himself after he had written it.'
Johnson said on the same day, ' Swift corresponded minutely
with Stella and Mrs. Dingley4, on his importance with the
ministry, from excessive vanity— that the women might exclaim,
" What a great man Dr. Swift is ! " '
Among other topics, Warburton claimed our attention. Gold
smith took a part against Warburton whom Johnson strenuously
defended, and, indeed, with many strong arguments, and with
bright sallies of eloquence5. Goldsmith ridiculously asserted,
that Warburton was a weak writer. This misapplied character
istic Dr. Johnson refuted. I shall never forget one of the happy
metaphors with which he strengthened and illustrated his refuta
tion. ' Warburton/ said he, ' may be absurd, but he will never
be weak : \\& flounders well/
1 Ante, i. 373, 479; ii. 211. 5 Johnson said: — 'I treated War-
2 Ib. 1.452 ; ii. 318 ; v. 44 ; Works, burton with great respect both in my
viii. 197. Preface and in my Notes ' to Shake-
3 Life, ii. 319. In his Life of Gay speare. Ib. iv. 288. The notes are
Johnson says of that writer's ' little often contemptuous and sarcastic :
poems ' : — * Those that please least ' I am well informed (writes Bos-
are the pieces to which Gulliver well) that Warburton said of John-
gave occasion ; for who can much son, " I admire him, but cannot bear
delight in the echo of an unnatural his style;" and that Johnson being
fiction?' Works, viii. 71. told of this said, "That is exactly
4 Life, iv. 177. my case as to him." ' Ib. iv. 48.
Lord
332 Anecdotes by the Rev. Per dual Stockdale.
Lord Lyttelton told me, that on a visit to Mr. Pope, while he
was translating the Iliad, he took the liberty to express to that
great poet his surprise, that he had not determined to translate
Homer's poem into blank verse ; as it was an epic poem, and as
he had before him the illustrious example of Milton, in the
Paradise Lost. Mr. Pope's answer to Lord Lyttelton was, that
' he could translate it more easily into rhyme.' I communicated
this anecdote to Dr. Johnson ; his remark on it to me was,
very erroneous in criticism, — ' Sir, when Pope said that, he knew
that he lied1/
When Dr. Johnson and I were talking of Garrick, I observed
that he was a very moderate, fair, and pleasing companion ; when
we considered what a constant influx had flowed upon him, both
of fortune and fame, to throw him off of his bias of moral and social
self-government. ' Sir,' replied Johnson, in his usual emphatical
and glowing manner, ' you are very right in your remark ;
Garrick has undoubtedly the merit of a temperate and unas
suming behaviour in society ; for more pains have been taken
to spoil that fellow, than if he had been heir apparent to the
empire of India 2 ! '
When Garrick was one day mentioning to me Dr. Johnson's
illiberal treatment of him, on different occasions ; ' I question,'
said he, c whether, in his calmest and most dispassionate moments,
he would allow me the high theatrical merit which the public
have been so generous as to attribute to me.' I told him, that
I would take an early opportunity to make the trial, and that
I would not fail to inform him of the result of my experiment.
As I had rather an active curiosity to put Johnson's disinterested
generosity fairly to the test, on this apposite subject, I took an
early opportunity of waiting on him, to hear his verdict on
Garrick's pretensions to his great and universal fame. I found
him in very good and social humour ; and I began a conversa
tion which naturally led to the mention of Garrick. I said
something particular on his excellence as an actor; and I added,
1 For Johnson's expression ' he verse see ib. iv. 42.
lies and he knows he lies,' see Life, 2 Ib. iii. 263 ; ante, ii. 244.
iv. 49, and for his opinion of blank
'But
Anecdotes by the Rev. Percival Stockdale. 333
' But pray, Dr. Johnson, do you really think that he deserves
that illustrious theatrical character, and that prodigious fame,
which he has acquired ? ' ' Oh, Sir,' said he, ' he deserves every
thing that he has acquired, for having seized the very soul of
Shakspeare; for having embodied it in himself; and for having
expanded its glory over the world V I was not slow in com
municating to Garrick the answer of the Delphic oracle. The
tear started in his eye — ' Oh ! Stockdale/ said he, * such a praise
from such a man ! — this atones for all that has passed.'
I called on Dr. Johnson one morning, when Mrs. Williams,
the blind lady, was conversing with him. She was telling him
where she had dined the day before. ' There were several
gentlemen there,' said she, ' and when some of them came to the
tea-table, I found that there had been a good deal of hard
drinking/ She closed this observation with a common and trite
moral reflection ; which, indeed, is very ill-founded, and does
great injustice to animals — ' I wonder what pleasure men can
take in making beasts of themselves ! ' ' I wonder, Madam/
replied the Doctor, ' that you have not penetration enough to see
the strong inducement to this excess ; for he who makes a beast
of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man 2.J
Mrs. Bruce, an old Scotch lady, the widow of Captain Bruce,
who had been for many years an officer in the Russian service,
drank tea with me one afternoon at my lodgings in Bolt Court,
when Johnson was one of the company. She spoke very broad
Scotch ; and this alarmed me for her present social situation.
As we were conversing on a subject in which we were interested,
she interrupted us by saying that we should give Dr. Johnson an
opportunity of favouring the company with his sentiments. By
this absurd interruption the Doctor was naturally far less com
municative. That undaunted dame was, however, determined to
* ' BOSWELL. " But has not Gar- vile, quotes the following passage
rick brought Shakespeare into from one of Shenstone's letters : —
notice ? " JOHNSON. " Sir, to allow ' For a man of high spirits ... to be
that would be to lampoon the age." ' forced to drink himself into pains of
Life, ii. 92. the body in order to get rid of the
2 Johnson, in his Life of Somer- pains of the mind is a misery.'
make
334 Anecdotes by the Rev. Percival Stockdale.
make him speak if it was possible. ' Dr. Johnson,' said she, ' you tell
us, in your Dictionary, that in England oats are given to horses ;
but that in Scotland they support the people 1. Now, Sir, I can
assure you, that in Scotland we give oats to our horses, as well
as you do to yours in England.' I almost trembled for the
widow of the Russian hero ; I never saw a more contemptuous
leer than that which Johnson threw at Mrs. Bruce : however, he
deigned her an answer, — ' I am very glad, Madam, to find that
you treat your horses as well as you treat yourselves.' I was
delivered from my panic, and I wondered that she was so gently
set down.
Soon after I had entered on my charge as domestic tutor to
my Lord Craven's son I called on Dr. Johnson. ' Well (said he)
how do you like your place ? ' On my hesitating to answer, or
on my answer which expressed not much love of my situation,
he added the following words of consolation : ' You must expect
insolence.'
1 ' Oats. A grain which in Eng- to men and horses.' C. W. Boase's
land is generally given to horses, Oxford, p. 65.
but in Scotland supports the people.' Hector told Boswell that Johnson,
'The sarcastic Jew in Richard of in his boyhood, 'used to have oat-
Devizes' History of Richard I says meal porridge for breakfast.' Mor-
Oxford barely keeps its clerks from rison Autographs, 2nd series, j i.
starving, Exeter gives the same grain 368.
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF
DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON
BY THOMAS TYERS*
WHEN Charles the Second was informed of the death of
Cowley, he pronounced, 'that he had not left a better man
behind him in England 2.' It may be affirmed with truth, that
this was the case when Dr. Johnson breathed his last. Those
who observed his declining state of health during the last winter,
and heard his complaints, of painful days and sleepless nights,
for which he took large quantities of opium 3, had no reason to
expect that he could survive another season of frost and snow.
1 From the Gentlemaris Magazine,
December, 1784. 'The gentleman
whom he thus familiarly mentioned
[as Tom Tyers] was Mr. Thomas
Tyers, son of Mr. Jonathan Tyers,
the founder of that excellent place of
publick amusement, Vauxhall Gar
dens. Mr. Thomas Tyers was bred to
the law ; but having a handsome for
tune, vivacity of temper, and eccen
tricity of mind, he could not confine
himself to the regularity of practice.
He therefore ran about the world
with a pleasant carelessness, amusing
everybody by his desultory conver
sation. He abounded in anecdote,
but was not sufficiently attentive to
accuracy. I therefore cannot ven
ture to avail myself much of a bio
graphical sketch of Johnson which
he published, being one among the
various persons ambitious of append
ing their names to that of my illus
trious friend. That sketch is, how
ever, an entertaining little collection
of fragments.' Life, iii. 308.
2 Works, vii. 14.
3 ' I have such horrour of opiates,'
he wrote, 'that I do not think of
them but in extremis? Letters, ii.
367. See also ib. pp. 376, 383. Dr.
Brocklesby noticed that ' opiate was
never destructive of his readiness in
conversation.' Ib. ii. 437.
His
336 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
His constitution was totally broken, and no art of the physician
or surgeon could protract his existence beyond the i3th of
December. When he was opened, one of his kidneys was found
decayed. He never complained of disorder in that region ; and
probably it was not the immediate cause of his dissolution. It
might be thought that so strong and muscular a body might
have lasted many years longer. For Johnson drank nothing
but water, and lemonade (by way of indulgence), for many
years, almost uninterruptedly, without the taste of any fermented
liquor : and he was often abstinent from animal food x, and kept
down feverish symptoms by dietetic management. Of Addison
and Pope he used to observe, perhaps to remind himself, that
they ate and drank too much, and thus shortened their days 2.
It was thought by many, who dined at the same table, that he
had too great an appetite 3. This might now and then be the
case, but not till he had subdued his enemy by famine. But his
bulk seemed to require now and then to be repaired by kitchen
physic. To great old age not one in a thousand arrives. How
few were the years of Johnson in comparison of those of Jenkins
and Parr4! But perhaps Johnson had more of life, by his
intenseness of living. Most people die of disease. He was all
his life preparing himself for death : but particularly in the last
stage of his asthma and dropsy. ' Take care of your soul — don't
live such a life as I have done — don't let your business or dissi
pation make you neglect your sabbath ' — were now his constant
inculcations 5. Private and publick prayer, when his visitors
were his audience, were his constant exercises. He cannot be
said to have been weary of the weight of existence, for he
1 On July 10, 1780, he wrote to The death of Pope was imputed by
Mrs. Thrale : — ' Last week I saw some of his friends to a silver sauce-
flesh but twice, and I think fish once, pan, it which it was his delight to
the rest was pease.' Letters, ii. 184. heat potted lampreys.' Ib. viii. 310.
See ib. ii. 143. 3 Life, iv. 330.
2 ' From the coffee-house Addison 4 It was confidently asserted that
went again to a tavern, where he Henry Jenkins was born in 1501 and
often sat late, and drank too much died in 1670 and that Thomas Parr
wine.' Works, vii. 449. ' The death was born in 1483 and died in 1635.
of great men is not always propor- 5 Life, iv. 410, 413-14, 416 ; ante,
tioned to the lustre of their lives. ... ii. 157.
declared
by Thomas Tyers. 337
declared, that to prolong it only for one year, but not for the
comfortless sensations he had lately felt, he would suffer the
amputation of a limb x. He was willing to endure positive pain
for possible pleasure. But he had no expectation that nature
could last much longer. And therefore, for his last week, he
undoubtedly abandoned every hope of his recovery or duration,
and committed his soul to God. Whether he felt the instant
stroke of death, and met the king of terrors face to face, cannot
be known : for ' death and the sun cannot be looked upon,' says
Rochefoucault 2. But the writer of this has reason to imagine^
that when he thought he had made his peace with his Maker, he
had nothing to fear 3. He has talked of submitting to a violent
death, in a good cause, without apprehensions. On one of the
last visits from his surgeon, who on performing the puncture on
his legs, had assured him that he was better, he declared, ' he
felt himself not so, and that he did not desire to be treated like
a woman or a child, for that he had made up his mind V He
had travelled through the vale of this world for more than
seventy-five years. It probably was a wilderness to him for
more than half his time. But he was in the possession of rest
and comfort and plenty, for the last twenty years5. Yet the
blessings of fortune and reputation could not compensate to him
the want of health, which pursued him through his pilgrimage
on earth. Post equitem sedet atra cura.
( For when we mount the flying steed,
Sits gloomy Care behind6.'
1 Life, iv. 409 ; ante, ii. 132. rence of this, because I believe it has
2 ' Le soleil ni la mort ne se peu- been frequently practised on myself.'
vent regarder fixement.' Maximes, Life, iv. 306.
xxvi. 5 It was in 1762 that his pension
3 Ante, ii. 203. was given him, and in 1765 that his
4 ' I deny (said Johnson) the law- friendship with the Thrales began,
fulness of telling a lie to a sick man His ' rest and comfort ' were greatly
for fear of alarming him. You have marred by Mr. Thrale's death in
no business with consequences; you 1781, and by the estrangement from
are to tell the truth. Besides, you Mrs. Thrale which soon followed,
are not sure what effect your telling His feeling of solitude was increased
him that he is in danger may have. by the death of Levett in 1782, and
It may bring his distemper to a of Miss Williams in 1783.
crisis, and that may cure him. Of 6 'And when he mounts,' &c.
all lying, I have the greatest abhor- FRANCIS. HORACE, Odes, iii. i, 36.
VOL. II. Z Of
338 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
Of the hundred sublunary things bestowed on mortals, health is
ninety-nine. He was born with a scrophulous habit, for which he
was touched, as he acknowledged, by good Queen Anne, whose
piece of gold he carefully preserved *. But even a Stuart could
not expel that enemy to his frame, by a touch. For it would
have been even beyond the stroking power of Greatrix in all his
glory, to charm it away 2. Though he seemed to be athletic as
Milo himself, and in his younger days performed several feats of
activity, he was to the last a convulsionary1 \ He has often stept
aside, to let nature do what she would with him. His gestures,
which were a degree of St. Vitus's daate, in the street, attracted
the notice of many : the stare of the vulgar, but the compassion
of the better sort. This writer has often looked another way, as
the companions of Peter the Great were used to do, while he
was under the short paroxysm4. He was perpetually taking
opening medicines 5. He could only keep his ailments from
gaining ground. He thought he was worse for the agitation of
active exercise 6. He was afraid of his disorders seizing his head,
1 ' She hung about his neck the
usual amulet of an angel of gold,
with the impress of St. Michael the
archangel on one side and a ship
under full sail on the other.' Haw
kins, p. 4 ; ante. \. 133.
2 * Mr. Gretrakes is said to have
cured pains and diseases only by
touching; and the excellent Dr. H.
More, who gives a particular account
of him, attributes his great success
to a certain sanative virtue in his
hand ; and supposes it might be con
ferred upon him as a distinguishing
grace on account of the regenerate
and confirmed state of piety which
he seemed to be in.' Gentleman's
Magazine, 1748, p. 449.
See Diet. Nat. Biog. under GREAT-
RAKES, VALENTINE.
3 Convulsionary is not in John
son's Dictionary. The only instance
Dr. Murray gives of its use is as a
translation of convulsionnaire — ' one
of a number of fanatics in France in
the eighteenth century, who fell into
convulsions and extravagances, sup
posed to be accompanied by miracu
lous cures/ &c. All that Tyers
meant was that Johnson was subject
to those * motions or tricks ' which
Reynolds said were in his case ' im
properly called convulsions.' Ante,
ii. 222, 273.
4 ' The Czar while young, and even
until his death, was subject to fre
quent fits of a violent spasm of the
brain. It was a kind of convulsion
which threw him sometimes for whole
hours into so dreadful a situation
that he could not bear the presence
of any person, not even of his best
friends.' Original Anecdotes of Peter
the Great, London, 1788, p. 109.
5 Letters, ii. 101.
6 Probably this wa£ only towards
the close of his life when he was dis
tressed with asthma. For his re
commendation of exercise see Life, i.
446 ; iv. 150, n. 2 ; Letters, ii. 99.
and
by Thomas Tyers. 339
and took all possible care that his understanding should not be
deranged1. Orandum est, ut sit mens sana in corpore sano2.
When his knowledge from books, and he knew all that books
could tell him 3, is considered ; when his compositions in verse
and prose are enumerated to the reader (and a complete list of
them wherever dispersed is desirable 4) it must appear extra
ordinary he could abstract himself so much from his feelings,
and that he could pursue with ardour the plan he laid down of
establishing a great reputation. Accumulating learning (and the
example of Barretier, whose life he wrote 5) shewed him how to
arrive at all science. His imagination often appeared to be too
mighty for the control of his reason. In the preface to his
Dictionary, he says, that his work was composed * amidst incon
venience and distraction, in sickness and in sorrow.' * I never
read this preface,' says Mr. Home6, 'but it makes me shed
tears/
If this memoir-writer possessed the pen of a Plutarch, and the
subject is worthy of that great biographer, he would begin his
account from his youth, and continue it to the last period of his
life, in the due order of an historian. What he knows and can
recollect, he will perform. His father (called ' gentleman ' 7 in
the parish register) he says himself, and it is also within memory,
was an old bookseller at Lichfield, and a whig in principle 8.
The father of Socrates was not of higher extraction, nor of a more
honourable profession. Our author was born in that city ; and
the house of his birth was a few months ago visited by a learned
1 Life, i. 64; v. 215 ; ante^ i. 199, though now lost in the indiscriminate
472 ; ii. 322. assumption of Esquire, was commonly
a Juvenal, Satires, x. 356; Life,\v. taken by those who could not boast
401. of gentility.' Life, i. 34.
3 Ante, ii. 214 n. 8 * He was a zealous high-church
4 Ante, i. 304 n. ; Life, i. 16, 1 12. man and royalist, and retained his
5 Life, i. 148 ; Works, vi. 376. attachment to the unfortunate house
6 Better known as Home Tooke. of Stuart, though he reconciled him-
Life, i. 297, n. 2 ; ante, i. 405 n. self by casuistical arguments of ex-
7 ' His father is there stiled Gen- pediency and necessity to take the
tleman, a circumstance of which an oaths imposed by the prevailing
ignorant panegyrist has praised him power.' Jb. i. 36. For Johnson's
for not being proud ; when the truth defence of a Jacobite's taking the
is, that the appellation of Gentleman, oaths see ib. ii. 322.
z ^ acquaintance
340 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
acquaintance, the information of which was grateful to the
Doctor. It may probably be engraved for some monthly re
pository \ The print and the original dwelling may become as
eminent as the mansion of Shakspeare at Stratford, or of
Erasmus at Rotterdam. He certainly must have had a good
school education. He was entered of Pembroke College, Oxford,
Oct. 31, 1728, and continued there for several terms. By whose
bounty he was supported, may be known to enquiry 2. While
he was there, he was negligent of the College rules and hours,
and absented himself from some of the lectures, for which when
he was reprimanded and interrogated, he replied with great
rudeness and contempt of the lecturer 3. Indeed he displayed
an overbearing disposition that would not brook control, and
shewed that, like Caesar, he was fitter to command than to obey.
This dictatorial spirit was the leading feature in his deportment
to his contemporaries. His college themes and declamations are
still remembered ; and his elegant translation of Pope's Messiah
into Latin verse found its way into a volume of poems published
by one Husbands4. In 1735, after having been some time an
usher to Anthony Blackwall 5, his friends assisted him to set up
an academy near Lichfield 6. Here he formed an acquaintance
with the late Bishop Green, then an usher at Lichfield 7, and
1 In the Gentleman's Magazine and a half.' That he left it a few
for February, 1785, a view was given days before July 27, 1732, we know
of Johnson's birthplace. from a letter Malone had seen. Life,
3 Life, i. 58 ; ante, i. 362. i. 85, n. I. Hawkins (p. 20) says
3 Ante, i. 164. that it was in March, 1732, that he
4 Fellow of Pembroke College, went to the school. The entry in
Life, i. 6i,». 3. See ante, i. 459. his Diary l Julii 16 [1732] Bosvor-
5 Boswell denies the truth of this tiam pedes petit* probably, as Dr.
statement, on the ground that ' Black- Westby-Gibson says, refers to his
wall died on April 8, 1730, more than return after the summer vacation.
a year before Johnson left the Uni- That he was not there on Oct. 30,
versity.' As Johnson left it in 1731, is shown by a letter written
December, 1729, the proof is value- from Lichfield on that day, in which
less. Life, i. 78, n. 2, 84. Dr.Westby- he says, ' I am yet unemployed.'
Gibson, in his article on Blackwall Letters, i. i.
in the Diet. Nat. Biog., argues 6 It was most likely with his wife's
in favour of the statement, and money that he set up his academy,
says, ' We may conclude Johnson Ante, i. 367 ; Life, i. 95, n. 3.
taught in the school for two years 7 Life, i. 45.
with
by Thomas Tyers. 341
with Mr. Hawkins Browne x. As the school probably did not
answer his expectation (for who does not grow tired of teaching
others, especially if he wants to teach himself?), he resolved to
come up to London, where everything is to be had for wit and
for money (Romce omnia venalia), and to seek his fortune. He
was accompanied by his pupil Mr. Garrick : and travelled on
horseback to the metropolis in March, 1737 2.
The time and business of this journey are before the public in
some letters from Mr. Walmsley, who recommends Johnson as
a writer of tragedy ; as a translator from the French language ;
and as a good scholar3. He brought with him his tragedy of
Irene -, which afterwards took its chance on Drury-Lane theatre 4.
Luckily he did not throw it into the fire, by design or otherwise,
as Parson Adams did his ALschylus by mistake5. He offered
himself for the service of the booksellers ; ' for he was born for
nothing but to write 6,' —
' And from the jest obscene reclaim our youth,
And set our passions on the side of truth7.'
The hurry of this pen prevents the recollection of his first per
formances. But he used to call Dodsley his patron 8, because he
made him, if not first, yet best known by printing and publishing,
upon his own judgment, his Satire, called London 9, which was
an imitation of one of Juvenal, whose gravity and severity of
expression he possessed. He there and then discovered how
able he was 'to catch the manners living as they rise10. The
1 Ante, i. 266 ; Life, ii. 339. Pope, Prologue to the Satires, 1.
2 'Both of them used to talk 272.
pleasantly of this their first journey 7 ' He from the taste obscene re-
to London. Garrick, evidently mean- claims our youth,
ing to embellish a little, said one And sets the passions on the
day in my hearing, " we rode and side of truth.'
tied.'" Life, i. 101, n. I. Pope, Imitations of Horace, Epis.
3 Ante, i. 368 ; Life, i. 102. 2. i. 217.
4 He had written only three acts 8 Writing about the representation
of Irene on his first coming to Lon- of Dodsley's Cleone Johnson says : —
don ; he continued it at Greenwich ' I went the first night, and supported
and finished it at Lichfield. Life, i. it as well I might ; for Doddy, you
106-7. know, is my patron, and I would not
5 Joseph Andrews, Bk. ii. ch. 12. desert him.' Life, i. 326.
6 'Heav'ns! was I born for no- 9 Ib. i. 124.
thing but to write?' I0 Pope, Essay on Man, i. 14.
poem
342 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
poem had a great sale, was applauded by the public, and praised
by Mr. Pope, who, not being able to discover the author, said
* he will soon be deterr^' In 1738 he luckily fell into the hands
of his other early patron, Cave. His speeches for the Senate of
Lilliput were begun in 1740, and continued for several sessions.
They passed for original with many till very lately. But Johnson,
who detested all injurious imposition, took a great deal of pains
to acknowledge the innocent deception. He gave Smollett notice
of their unoriginality, while he was going over his historical
ground, and to be upon his guard in quoting from the Lilliput
Debates 2. It is within recollection, that an animated speech he
put into the mouth of Pitt, in answer to the Parliamentary
veteran, Horace Walpole 3, was much talked of, and considered
as genuine4. Members of parliament acknowledge, that they
reckon themselves much obliged for the printed accounts of
debates of both Houses, because they are made to speak better
than they do in the Senate. Within these few years, a gentle
man in a high employment under government was at breakfast in
Gray's-Inn, where Johnson was present, and was commending
the excellent preservation of the speeches of both houses, in the
Lilliput Debates 5. He declared, he knew how to appropriate
every speech without a signature ; for that every person spoke
in character, and was as certainly and as easily known as a
speaker in Homer or in Shakspeare. * Very likely, Sir/ said
1 Ante, i. 373. ignorant in spite of experience.'
2 Smollett quoted them as if they Works, x. 355.
were genuine. History of England, Horace Walpole, Sir Robert Wal-
iii. 73. See Life, i. 505. pole's son, complained that the
3 Horace Walpole, first Baron published report of his own first
Walpole, brother of Sir Robert. speech ' did not contain one sentence
4 It is the speech which begins : — of the true one.' Walpole's Letters,
' Sir, the atrocious crime of being a i. 147. Forty-nine years later he
young man, which the honourable wrote: — 'I never knew Johnson wrote
gentleman has with such spirit the speeches in the Gentleman's
and decency charged upon me, I Magazine till he died.' Ib. ix.
shall neither attempt to palliate nor 319.
deny, but content myself with wish- 5 Wedderburne, I think, is meant,
ing that I may be one of those whose He was one of the party — a dinner
follies may cease with their youth, party given by Foote. Life, i. 504 ;
and not of that number who are ante, i. 378.
Johnson
by Thomas Tyers. 343
Johnson, ashamed of having deceived him, * but I wrote them in
the garret where I then lived.' His predecessor in this oratorical
fabrication was Guthrie T ; his successor in the Magazine was
Hawkesworth 2. It is said, that to prove himself equal to this
employment (but there is not leisure for the adjustment of
chronology) in the judgment of Cave, he undertook the Life of
Savage 3, which he asserted (not incredible of him), and valued
himself upon it, that he wrote in six and thirty hours 4. In one
night he also composed, after finishing an evening in Holborn,
his Hermit of Teneriff5. He sat up a whole night to compose
the preface to the Preceptor 6.
His eye-sight was not good ; but he never wore spectacles, not
on account of such a ridiculous vow as Swift made not to use
them 7, but because he was assured they would be of no service to
him. He once declared, that he ' never saw the human face
divine 8.' He saw better with one eye than the other, which,
however, was not like that of Camoens, the Portuguese poet, as
expressed on his medal 9. Latterly perhaps he meant to save his
eyes, and did not read so much as he otherwise would. He
preferred conversation to books ; but when driven to the refuge
of reading by being left alone, he then attached himself to that
1 Ante, i. 378 ; ii. 92 ; Life,\. 116. had neither business nor amuse-
2 Life, i. 512. ment ; for having by some ridiculous
3 The publication of the last of resolution, or mad vow, determined
Johnson's Debates was in March, never to wear spectacles he could
1744; the Life of Sewage had ap- make little use of books in his later
peared in the previous February. Ib. years.' Johnson's Works, viii. 218.
i. 165, 511. Perhaps Stella used to urge him to
4 'I wrote forty-eight of the printed wear them, for in his verses to her
octavo pages of the Life of Savage he says : —
at a sitting ; but then I sat up all ' Nor think on our approaching
night.3 Ib. v. 67. There were 180 ills,
pages in all. And talk of spectacles and pills.'
5 The Vision of Theodore the Swift's Works, ed. 1803, xi. 21.
Hermit of Teneriffe found in his 8 Paradise Lost, iii. 44. For
Cell. Works, ix. 162. ' The Bishop Johnson's eyesight see ante, i. 337.
of Dromore heard Dr. Johnson say 9 In the Gentleman's Magazine
that he thought this was the best for April, 1784 (p. 257), is given an
thing he ever wrote.' Life, i. 192. engraving of this medal, which shows
6 Ib. i. 192. Camoens' disfigurement by the loss of
7 'Having thus excluded conver- an eye. See also ib. p. 415.
sation and desisted from study Swift
amusement
344 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
amusement x. ' Till this year,' said he to an intimate,- ' I have
done tolerably well without sleep, for I have been able to read
like Hercules 2.' But he picked and culled his companions for
his midnight hours ; ' and chose his author as he chose his friend3.'
The mind is as fastidious about its intellectual meal as the
appetite is as to its culinary one ; and it is observable, that the
dish or the book that palls at one time is a banquet at another4.
By his innumerable quotations you would suppose, with a great
personage 5, that he must have read more books than any man in
England, and have been a mere book-worm : but he acknowledged
that supposition was a mistake in his favour. He owned he had
hardly ever read a book through 6. The posthumous volumes of
Mr. Harris of Salisbury (which treated of subjects that were
congenial with his own professional studies) had attractions that
engaged him to the end 7. Churchill used to say, having heard
perhaps of his confession, as a boast, that ( if Johnson had only
read a few books, he could not be the author of his own works.'
His opinion, however, was, that he who reads most, has the
chance of knowing most ; but he declared, that the perpetual
task of reading was as bad as the slavery in the mine, or the labour
1 On April 19, 1783, he wrote : — Roscommon, Essay on Translated
' I can apply better to books than Verse, 1. 95.
I could in some more vigorous parts l>mLife, iii. 193.
of my life, at least than I did; and 5 Boswell describes George III as
I have one more reason for reading ; 'A GREAT PERSONAGE.' Ib. i. 219.
that time has, by taking away my Tyers exaggerates what the king
companions, left me less opportunity said. Ib. ii. 36.
of conversation.' Letters, ii. 289. 6 Ib. i. 71; ii. 226; ante, i. 332, 363.
See also Life, iv. 218, n. i, where he 7 Harris's last work, his Philo-
said to Malone : — ' I have been con- logical Inquiries, was published in
fined this week past ; and here you 1781, the year after his death.
find me roasting apples and reading JOHNSON. " Harris is a sound
the History of Birmingham' sullen scholar; he does not like in-
2 ' He lamented much his inability terlopers. Harris, however, is a prig,
to read during his hours of restless- and a bad prig. I looked into his
ness. " I used formerly (he added) book [Hermes] and thought he did
when sleepless in bed to read like not understand his own system."'
a Turk:' ' Life, iv. 409. Life, iii. 245. See ib. v. 377, where
3 ' Then seek a Poet who your ' he thought Harris " a coxcomb."
Way does bend This he said of him not as a man but
And chuse an Author as you as an author.' See also ante, i. 187;
chuse a Friend' ii. 70.
at
by Thomas Tyers. 345
at the oar. He did not always give his opinion unconditionally
of the pieces he had even perused, and was competent to decide
upon x. He did not choose to have his sentiments generally
known ; for there was a great eagerness, especially in those who
had not the pole-star of judgment to direct them, to be taught
what to think or say on literary performances. c What does
Johnson say of such a book ? ' was the question of every day.
Besides, he did not want to increase the number of his enemies,
which his decisions and criticisms had created him ; for he was
generally willing to retain his friends, to whom, and their works,
he bestowed sometimes too much praise, and recommended be
yond their worth, or perhaps his own esteem. But affection knows
no bounds. Shall this pen find a place in the present page to
mention, that a shameless Aristophanes had an intention of
taking him off upon the stage, as the Rehearsal does the great
Dryden 2 ? When it came to the notice of our exasperated man
of learning, he conveyed such threats of vengeance and personal
punishment to the mimic, that he was glad to proceed no farther3.
The reverence of the public for his character afterwards, which
was increasing every year, would not have suffered him to be the
object of theatrical ridicule. Like Fame in Virgil, vires acquirit
eundo 4. In the year 1738 he wrote the Life of Father Paul, and
published proposals for a translation of his History of the Council
of Trent, by subscription : but it did not go on 5. Mr. Urban
even yet hopes to recover some sheets of this translation,
that were in a box under St. John's Gate ; more certainly once
1 * JOHNSON. " My judgment I Macaulay, after saying that he
have found is no certain rule as to ' admires no historians much except
the sale of a book." BOSWELL. Herodotus, Thucydides and Tacitus,'
" Pray, Sir, have you been much continues ; — ' Perhaps, in his way,
plagued with authors sending you a very peculiar way, I might add
their works to revise?" JOHNSON. Fra Paolo. ... He is my favourite
" No, Sir ; I have been thought a modern historian. His subject did
sour, surly fellow.'" Life, iv. 121. not admit of vivid painting; but,
See ante, i. 332. what he did, he did better than any-
2, Life^ ii. 168 ; Works, vii. 272. body.' Trevelyan's Macaulay, ed.
3 The mimic was Foote. Ante,\. 1877, ii. 270, 285. 'That incom-
424- parable historian,' Gibbon called
4 Aeneid, iv. 175. him. Misc. Works, iv. 551.
5 Life, i. 107, 135, 139.
placed
346 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
placed there, than Rowley's Poems were in the chest in a tower
of the church of Bristol x.
Night was his time for composition. Indeed he literally turned
night into day, nodes vigilabat ad ipsum mane ; but not like
Tigellius in Horace 2. Perhaps he never was a good sleeper, and
(while all the rest of the world was in bed) he chose his lamp, in
the words of Milton,
' In midnight hour,
Were seen in some high lonely tower3/
He wrote and lived perhaps at one time only from day to
day, and (according to vulgar expression) from sheet to sheet.
Dr. Cheyne 4 reprobates the practice of turning night into day,
as pernicious to mind and body. Jortin has something to say
on the vigils of a learned man, in his Life of Erasmus. ' As he
would not sleep when he could, nothing but opium could procure
him repose.' There is cause to believe, he would not have
written unless under the pressure of necessity. Magister artis
ingenique largitor venter ', says Persius 5. He wrote to live, and
luckily for mankind lived a great many years to write. All his
pieces are promised for a new edition of his works under the
inspection of Sir John Hawkins, one of his executors, who has
undertaken to be his biographer. Johnson's high tory prin
ciples in church and state were well known. But neither his
Prophecy of the Hanover Horse, lately maliciously reprinted 6,
1 Life, iii. 50. 141) 'resolves itself into an invective
2 Satires, i. 3. 17. Steevens denies against a standing army, a ridicule of
that ' night was Johnson's time for the balance of power, complaints of
composition.' Ante, ii. 328. the inactivity of the British lion, and
3 ' Or let my lamp at midnight that the Hanover horse was suffered
hour to suck his blood.' Hawkins, p. 72.
Be seen in some high lonely It was reprinted in 1775. About a
tower.' year later Boswell mentioned the
II Penseroso, 1. 85. republication to Johnson. 'To my
4 Life, i. 65. Fielding writes his surprise, he had not yet heard of it.
name Cheney, which shows how it He requested me to go directly and
was pronounced. ' The learned Dr. get it for him, which I did. He
Cheney used to call drinking punch looked at it and laughed, and seemed
pouring liquid fire down your throat.' to be much diverted with the feeble
Tom Jones, Bk. xi. ch. 8. efforts of his unknown adversary,
5 Prologus, 1. 10. who, I hope, is alive to read this
6 M armor Norfolciense (Life, i. account. ''Now (said he) here is
nor
by Thomas Tyers. 347
nor his political principles or conversations, got him into any
personal difficulties, nor prevented the offer of a pension, nor his
acceptance. Kara temporum felicitas, ubi sentire quce velis, et,
quce sentias dicer e licet x. The present royal family are winning
the hearts of all the friends of the house of Stuart 2. There is
here neither room nor leisure to ascertain the progress of his
publications, though, in the idea of Shenstone, it would exhibit
the history of his mind and thoughts.
He was employed by Osborne to make a catalogue of the
Harleian Library. Perhaps, like those who stay too long on an
errand, he did not make the expedition his employer expected,
from whom he might deserve a gentle reprimand. The fact was,
when he opened a book he liked, he could not restrain from
reading it. The bookseller upbraided him in a gross manner,
and, as tradition goes, gave him the lie direct, though our
catalogue-maker offered at an excuse. Johnson turned the
volume into a weapon, and knocked him down, and told him,
'not to be in a hurry to rise, for when he did, he proposed
kicking him down stairs 3. Perhaps the lie direct may be
punished ad modum recipients •, as the law gives no satisfaction.
His account of the collection, and the tracts that are printed in
quarto volumes 4, were well received by the public. Of his folio
labours in his English Dictionary 5 a word must be said ; but there
is not room for much. The delineation of his plan, which was
esteemed a beautiful composition, was inscribed to Lord Chester
field, no doubt with permission, whilst he was secretary of state6.
It was at this time, he said, he aimed at elegance of writing, and
somebody who thinks he has vexed come nearer to me, while his old
me sadly: yet, if it had not been prejudices seemed to be fermenting
for you, you rogue, I should prob- in his mind), this Hanoverian family
ably never have seen it." ' Life, i. is isolde here. They have no friends.'
142. Ib. iv. 165.
1 Tacitus, Historiae, i. I. 3 Ante, i. 304; Life, i. 154.
3 ' Dr. Johnson grew so out- 4 The Harleian Miscellany was
rageous as to say [in 1777] that if printed in eight quarto volumes.
England were fairly polled the pre- Johnson wrote the preface. Life, i.
sent King would be sent away to- 175.
night, and his adherents hanged 5 His Dictionary was published in
to-morrow.' Life, iii. 155. ' Sir two folio volumes,
(said he [1783] in a low voice, having 6 Ib. i. 183.
set
348 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
set for his emulation the Preface of Chambers to his Cyclopedia x.
Johnson undoubtedly expected beneficial patronage. It should
seem that he was in the acquaintance of his Lordship, and that
he had dined at his table, by an allusion to him in a letter to his
son, printed by Mrs. Stanhope, and which he himself would have
been afraid to publish. While he was ineffectually hallooing the
Graces in the ear of his son, he set before him the slovenly be
haviour of our author at his table, whom he acknowledges as a
great genius, but points him out as a rock to avoid, and considers
him only as ' a respectable Hottentot V When the book came
out, Johnson took his revenge, by saying of it, ' that the instruc
tions to his son inculcated the manners of a dancing master, and
the morals of a prostitute3.' Within this year or two he observed
(for anger is a short-lived passion), that, bating some impro
prieties, it contained good directions, and was not a bad system
of education 4. But Johnson probably did not think so highly
of his own appearance as of his morals. For, on being asked if
Mr. Spence had not paid him a visit 5 ? ' Yes,' says he, ' and
he probably may think he visited a bear.' ' Johnson,' says the
author of the Life of Socrates, ' is a literary savage.' ( Very
likely,' replied Johnson ; ' and Cooper (who was as thick as long)
is a literary Punchinello 6.'
1 'He once told me that he had 4 ' Lord Chesterfield's Letters to his
formed his style upon that of Sir Son, I think, might be made a very
William Temple, and upon Cham- pretty book. Take out the im-
bers's Proposal for his Dictionary.9 morality, and it should be put into
Life, i. 218. the hands of every young gentleman.'
2 I had proved, I thought, beyond Ib. iii. 53.
a doubt that it was not Johnson, but 5 'I mentioned Pope's friend,
the first Lord Lyttelton, who was Spence. JOHNSON. "He was a
Chesterfield's Hottentot. Life, i. 267, weak conceited man." BOSWELL.
n. 2 ; Lord Chesterfield's Worldly " A good scholar, Sir ? " JOHNSON.
Wisdom, p. 134. I was disappointed "Why, no, Sir." BOSWELL. " He
to find that the Professor of English was a pretty scholar." JOHNSON.
Literature in Glasgow, the late Mr. " You have about reached him." '
John Nichol, held to the old opinion in Ib. v. 317.
his Thomas Carlyle (English Men of 6 Cooper wrote the Life of Socrates.
Letters Series), p. 44. See ante, i. 384. ' Being told that Gilbert Cowper
3 ' They teach the morals of a [sic] called him the Caliban of Litera-
whore, and the manners of a dancing ture ; " Well (said he,) I must dub
master.' Life, i. 266. him the Punchinello." ' Life, ii. 129.
It
by Thomas Tyers. 349
It does not appear that Lord Chesterfield showed t any sub
stantial proofs of approbation to our Philologer, for that was the
professional title he chose z. A small present he would have
disdained2. Johnson was not of a temper to put up with the
affront of disappointment. He revenged himself in a letter to
his Lordship, written with great acrimony, and renouncing all
acceptance of favour3. It was handed about, and probably will
be published, for litera scripta manet. He used to say, 'he was
mistaken in his choice of a patron, for he had simply been
endeavouring to gild a rotten post4.'
Lord Chesterfield indeed commends and recommends Mr.
Johnson's Dictionary in two or three numbers of the World.
Not words alone pleased him. ' When I had undergone/ says
the compiler, ' a long and fatiguing voyage, and was just getting
into port, this Lord sent out a small cock-boat to pilot me in V
The agreement for this great work was for fifteen hundred pounds.
This was a large bookseller's venture at that time : and it is in
many shares 6. Robertson, Gibbon, and a few more, have raised
the price of manuscript copies. In the course of fifteen years,
two and twenty thousand pounds have been paid to four authors7.
1 'Philology and biography were 5 Life, i. 260; ante, i. 405.
his favourite pursuits.' Life, iv. 34. 6 Boswell mentions seven partners
'The faults of the book [the Die- in the Dictionary. Life, i. 183. In
tionary} resolve themselves, for the the title-page of the first edition an
most part, into one great fault. eighth, L. Hawes, is mentioned.
Johnson was a wretched etymolo- 7 In 1773 Hawkesworth was paid
gist.' Macaulay's Misc. Writings, £6,000 for Cook's Voyages. Ib. ii.
ed. 1871, p. 382. Perhaps he was 247, n. 5. In 1768 Robertson was
not worse than some of the most paid ^3,400 for the first edition of
learned of his contemporaries. Phi- his Charles V. For the second edi-
lology, as a science, did not yet tion he was to receive ^400. Letters
exist. Johnson defines it as ' criti- of Hume to Strahan, p. 15. Hume,
cism ; grammatical learning.' for the first two volumes of his His-
2 He had received ten pounds. iory of England (the Stuart period),
Life, i. 261. received, it seems, .£1,940. At this
3 Ib. i. 261. rate he would have received nearly
4 According to Rebecca Warner ,£8,000 for the whole work. ' The
(Original Letters, p. 204), Johnson copy-money given me by the book-
telling Joseph Fowke about his re- sellers,' he wrote, 'much exceeded
fusal to dedicate his Dictionary to anything formerly known in Eng-
Chesterfield, said: — 'Sir, I found I land.' Ib. pp. 15, 33. How much
must have gilded a rotten post.' Gibbon was paid is not, I think,
Johnson's
350 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
Johnson's world of words demands frequent editions. His titles
of Doctor of Laws from Dublin and from Oxford J (both of which
came to him unasked and unknown, and only not unmerited) ;
his pension from the King, which is to be considered as a reward
for his pioneering services in the English language, and by no
means as a bribe 2 ; gave him consequence, and made the
Dictionary and its author more extensively known. It is a
royal satisfaction to have made the life of a learned man more
comfortable to him.
* These are imperial works, and worthy Kings3.'
Lord Corke, who would have been kinder to him than Stanhope
(if he could) as soon as it came out, presented the Dictionary to
the Academy della Crusca at Florence in I7554. Even for the
abridgment in octavo5, which puts it into every body's hands, he
was paid to his satisfaction, by the liberality of his booksellers.
His reputation is as great for compiling, digesting, and ascertaining
the English language, as if he had invented it. His Grammar
in the beginning of the work was the best in our language, in the
opinion of Goldsmith. During the printing of his Dictionary,
the Ramblers came out periodically ; for he could do more
than one thing at a time. He declared that he wrote them by
way of relief from his application to his Dictionary, and for the
reward. He has told this writer, that he had no expectation
they would have met with so much success, and been so much
read and admired 6. What was amusement to him, is instruction
known. Blair was paid for his Ser- His Lordship, he said, behaved in
mons, ;£i,ioo. Life, iii. 98. For his the handsomest manner. He re-
Lectures on Rhetoric, which came peated the words twice, that he
later, he, no doubt, received a far might be sure Johnson heard them.'
larger sum. H is Sermons and Hume's 7^.1.374.
History do not, however, fall within } ' These are imperial arts and
' a course of fifteen years.' Boswell worthy thee.'
was, it seems, offered ^1,000 for his Dryden, quoted in Johnson's Die-
Life of Johnson, but he resolved to tionary.
keep the copyright. Ante, ii. 33, 37. 4 Life, i. 298, 443. Stanhope was
1 Life, i. 488 ; ii. 331. Lord Chesterfield.
2 ' He told Sir Joshua that Lord 5 Ib. i. 305.
Bute said to him expressly, "It is 6 'So slowly did this excellent
not given you for anything you are work, of which twelve editions have
to do, but for what you have done." now issued from the press, gain upon
to
by Thomas Tyers.
to others. Goldsmith declared, that a system of morals might
be drawn from these Essays : this idea is taken up and
executed by a publication in an alphabetical series of moral
maxims r.
The Rambler is a great task for one person to accomplish,
single-handed. For he was assisted only in two Essays by
Richardson, two by Mrs. Carter, and one by Miss Talbot2. His
Idlers had more hands3. The World*, the Connoisseur5,
(the Gray's Inn Journal an exception6,) the Mirror1, the
Adventurer* \ the Old Maid9, all had helpmates. The toilet
as well as the shelf and table have these volumes, lately re-
published with decorations. Shenstone, his fellow collegian, calls
his style a learned one10. There is indeed too much Latin in his
English. He seems to have caught the infectious language of Sir
Thomas Brown, whose works he read, in order to write his life ".
Though it cannot be said, as Campbell did of his own last work I2,
the world at large, that even in the
closing number the authour says, " I
have never been much a favourite of
the publick.' " Life, i. 208.
1 In The Beauties of the Rambler.
Ib. i. 214. In note i on this page
1 have confused this book with The
Beauties of Johnson.
2 Ib. i. 203 ; ante, i. 465.
3 Life, i. 330.
4 Ib. i. 257, h. 3.
5 Ib. i. 420, n. 3.
6 * It was successfully carried on by
Mr. Murphy alone, when a very young
man.' Ib. i. 356 ; ante, i. 408.
7 Life, iv. 390.
8 Ib. i. 252.
9 By Frances Brooke, 1755-6*
10 Shenstone matriculated on May
25, 1732, more than two years after
Johnson left. Dr. Johnson: His
Friends and his Critics, p. 345.
Writing on Feb. 9, 1760, Shenstone
says : — * I have lately been reading
one or two volumes of The Rambler ;
who, excepting against some few
hardnesses in his manner, and the
want of more examples to enliven, is
one of the most nervous, most per
spicuous, most concise, [and] most
harmonious prose writers I know.
A learned diction improves by time.'
Life, ii. 452.
11 ' Sir Thomas Brown, whose life
Johnson wrote, was remarkably fond
of Anglo-Latian diction ; and to his
example we are to ascribe Johnson's
sometimes indulging himself in this
kind of phraseology.' Ib. i. 221. See
ib. i. 308 for an example of Johnson's
Brownism. Nevertheless he con
demned Brown's style as ' a tissue of
many languages ; a mixture of hete
rogeneous words brought together
from distant regions,' £c. Works,
vi. 500. Murphy traces Johnson's
learned diction to his work on the
Dictionary. Ante, i. 466.
12 A Political Survey of Great
Britain. 'Johnson said to me, that
he believed Campbell's disappoint
ment, on account of the bad success
of that work, had killed him.' Life,
ii. 447.
that
352 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
that there is not a hard word in it, yet he does not rattle through
hard words and stalk through polysyllables, to use an expression
of Addison1, as in his earlier productions. His style, as he says
of Pope, became smoothed by the scythe, and levelled by the
roller2. It pleased him to be told by Dr. Robertson, that he had
read his Dictionary twice over. If he had some enemies beyond
and even on this side of the Tweed, he had more friends3. Only
he preferred England to Scotland. As it is cowardly to insult
a dead lion, it is hoped, that as death extinguishes envy, it also
does ill-will : ' for British vengeance wars not with the dead V
He gave himself very much to companionable friends for the
last years of his life (for he was delivered from the daily labour
of the pen, and he wanted relaxation), and they were eager for
the advantage and reputation of his conversation 5. Therefore he
frequently left his own home (for his household gods were not
numerous or splendid enough for the reception of his great
acquaintance 6), and visited them both in town and country. This
was particularly the case with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale (ex uno disce
omnes 7), who were the most obliging and obliged of all within his
intimacy, and to whom he was introduced by his friend Murphy8.
He lived with them a great part of every year. He formed at
Streatham a room for a library, and increased by his recom
mendation the number of books. Here he was to be found
(himself a library) when a friend called upon him; and by him the
friend was sure to be introduced to the dinner-table, which Mrs.
Thrale knew how to spread with the utmost plenty and elegance9 ;
1 'Your high nonsense blusters and Wise. Life, iii. 114; ante, i. 181 ; ii. 6.
makes a noise; it stalks upon hard 5 Ante, ii. 115.
words and rattles through poly- 6 Boswell, who dined and slept at
syllables.' The Whig Examiner, Johnson's house, 'found everything
No. 4. in excellent order.' Life, ii. 215, 375 ;
2 'Pope's page is a velvet lawn, iv. 92. Hawkins (ante, ii. 120) says
shaven by the scythe and levelled by that he 'sometimes gave not inelegant
the roller.' Works, viii. 324. dinners.' See also ante, ii. 141.
3 Life, ii. 121, 306 ; ante, i. 429. 'Crimine ab uno
4 'From zeal or malice now no Disce omnes.' Aeneid, ii. 65.
more we dread, 8 Ante, i. 232.
For English vengeance wars 9 For her luxurious table see Life,
not with the dead.' iii. 423, n. I ; Letters, ii. 389, and
Johnson's Prologue to A Word to the ante, ii. 43.
and
by Thomas Tyers. 353
and which was often adorned with such guests, that to dine there
was, epulis accumbere divum x. Of Mrs. Thrale, if mentioned at
all, less cannot be said, than that in one of the latest opinions of
Johnson, ' if she was not the wisest woman in the world, she was
undoubtedly one of the wittiest V She took or caused such care
to be taken of him, during an illness of continuance, that Gold
smith told her, 'he owed his recovery to her attention3.' She
taught him to lay up something of his income every year 4. Be
sides a natural vivacity in conversation, she had reading enough,
and the gods had made her poetical. The Three Warnings*
(the subject she owned not to be original) are highly interesting
and serious, and literally come home to every body's breast and
bosom. The writer of this would not be sorry if this mention
could follow the lady to Venice6. At Streatham, where our
Philologer was also guide, philosopher, and friend7, he passed
much time. His inclinations here were consulted, and his will was
a law. With this family he made excursions into Wales 8 and
to Brighthelmstone. Change of air and of place were grateful
to him, for he loved vicissitude. But he could not long endure
the illiteracy and rusticity of the country 9, for woods and groves,
and hill and dale, were not his scenes :
1 Aeneid, i. 79. 5 Ib. ii. 26. Hayward's Piozzi, ed.
* '"I wonder," said Mrs. Thrale, 1861, ii. 165.
"you bear with my nonsense." "No, According to Lysons 'the first
Madam, you never talk nonsense; hint of this poem was given to her
you have as much sense and more by Johnson ; she brought it to him
wit than any woman I know." ' Mme. very incorrect ; and he not only re-
D'Arblay's Diary, i. 87. See also vised it throughout, but supplied
Letters, ii. 153. several new lines.' She denied that
3 Ante, i. 234. it was suggested by Johnson, but
4 If this is a fact,— which I greatly apparently admitted the rest of the
doubt, — he repaid her lesson by statement. Prior's Malone, p. 413.
urging economy on her and her 6 After her second marriage, in
husband. Letters,\. 198-9. See Life, July, 1784, she had gone to Italy.
v. 442, where he recorded in his Letters, ii. 407, n. 3.
Diary : — ' Mrs. Thrale lost her purse. ^ Pope, Essay on Man, iv. 390.
She expressed so much uneasiness, Applied also by Boswell to Johnson in
that I concluded the sum to be very connexion with Mrs. Thrale. Life,\\\.6.
great ; but when I heard of only 8 Ib. v. 427. He also accompanied
seven guineas, I was glad to find them to France. Ib. ii. 384. Brighton
that she had so much sensibility of he frequently visited with them,
money.' 9 Nevertheless he paid long visits
VOL. II. A a ' Tower'd
354 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
' Tower' d cities please us then,
And the busy hum of men1.'
But the greatest honour of his life was from a visit that he
received from a Great Personage in the Library of the Queen's
palace — only it was not from a King of his own making2. John
son on his return repeated the conversation, which was much to
the honour of the great person, and was as well supported as
Lewis the XlVth could have continued with Voltaire. He said,
he only wanted to be more known, to be more loved 3. They
parted, much pleased with each other. If it is not an impertinent
stroke of this pen, it were to be wished that one more person
had conveyed an enquiry about him during his last illness.
' Every body has left their names, or wanted to know how I do/
says he, ' but ' 4. In his younger days he had a great many
enemies, of whom he was not afraid.
'Ask you what provocation I have had?
The strong antipathy of good to bad V
Churchill, the puissant satirist, challenged Johnson to combat :
Satire the weapon6. Johnson never took up the gauntlet or
replied, for he thought it unbecoming him to defend himself
against an author who might be resolved to have the last word 7.
He was content to let his enemies feed upon him as long as they
could. This writer has heard Churchill declare, that 'he thought
the poems of London, and The Vanity of Human Wishes, full
of admirable verses, and that all his compositions were diamonds
of the first water.' But he wanted a subject for his pen and for
raillery, and so introduced Pomposo into his descriptions. ' For,
with other wise folks, he sat up with the ghost V Our author,
to the country— one of * near six 6 For Churchill's attack on John-
months ' in 1767. Life, iii. 450-3. son see his Works, ed. 1766, i. 216,
1 L Allegro, 1. 1 17. 261 ; ii. 36, and Life, i. 310, 406, 419 ;
3 Life, ii. 33. Tyers apparently iii. I, n. 2. Dr. Warton wrote in
alludes to Johnson's liking for the 1797 :— 'We all remember when
House of Stuart. Churchill was more in vogue than
3 For Johnson's praise of the King Gray.' Warton's Pope's Works, i.
as 'the finest gentleman he had ever Introduction, p. 55.
seen ' see id. ii. 40. 7 For Johnson's silence on attack
4 I suppose the King is meant. see Life, i. 314 ; ante, i. 270, 407.
5 Pope, Epilogue to the Satires, 8 ' The gentlemen eminent for their
ji. 197. rank and character,' among them
who
by Thomas Tyers.
355
who had too implicit a confidence in human testimony, followed
the newspaper invitation to Cock-lane, in order to detect the
imposter, or, if it proved a being of an higher order, and appeared
in a questionable shape y to talk with it. Posterity must be per
mitted to smile at the credulity of that period 2. Johnson had
otherwise a vulnerable side ; for he was one of the few Nonjurors
that were left3, and it was supposed he would never bow the
knee to the Baal of Whiggism. This reign, which disdained
proscription, began with granting pensions (without requiring
their pens) to learned men 4.
Johnson was unconditionally offered one ; but such a turn was
given to it by the last mentioned satirical poet, that it might
have made him angry or odious, or both. Says Churchill,
amongst other passages very entertaining to a neutral reader,
' He damns the pension that he takes,
And loves the Stuart he forsakes5.'
Johnson and Douglas, 'the great
detector of impostures,' who one
night investigated the story of the
Cock Lane Ghost, 'sat rather more
than an hour ' in the chamber where
the spirit was said to be heard. Life,
i. 407, n. 3.
1 ' Thou com'st in such a question
able shape.' Hamlet, Act i. sc. 4.
1. 43. Johnson, in a note on this
passage, says : — ' Hamlet, amazed at
an apparition which, though in all
ages credited, has in all ages been
considered as the most wonderful
and most dreadful operation of super
natural agency, enquires of the
spectre in the most emphatick terms
why he breaks the order of nature by
returning from the dead.'
2 Neither Dr. Douglas nor Horace
Walpole, who both went to Cock
Lane, had any credulity. Walpole's
Letters, iii. 481. For Johnson's state
of mind see Life, ii. 150; iv. 298.
Posterity, just at present, has enough
to do in smiling at the credulity of
its own period.
A a
3 ' Many of my readers,' says Bos-
well, ' will be surprised when I men
tion that Johnson assured me he had
never in his life been in a non-juring
meeting-house.' Ib. iv. 287. For
Johnson's low opinion of many of
the Nonjurors and his condemnation
of their ' perverseness of integrity '
see ib. ii. 321.
4 'The accession of George the
Third to the throne of these king
doms, opened a new and brighter
prospect to men of literary merit,
who had been honoured with no
mark of royal favour in the preceding
reign.' Ib. i. 372. Goldsmith, Smol
lett and Sterne had no pension.
Hume had one, but he did not need
it; and so had Home and Beattie,
and what was far worse, Shebbeare.
Later on no pension was found for
Burns.
5 'He damns the pension which
he takes.'
Churchill's Works, i. 262.
See Life, i. 429.
2 Not
356 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
Not so fast, great satirist — for he had now no friends at Rome.
In the sport of conversation, he would sometimes take the wrong
side of a question, to try his hearers, or for his own exertions r.
But this may do mischief sometimes. ' For,1 without aiming at
ludicrous quotation, 'he could dispute on both sides, and con
fute 2.' Among those he could trust himself with, he would enter
into imaginary combat with the whigs, and has now and then
shook the principles of a sturdy revolutionist3. All ingenious
men can find arguments for and against every thing : and if their
hearts are not good, they may do mischief with their heads. On
all occasions he pressed his antagonist with so strong a front of
argument, that he generally prevented his retreat. ' Every
body/ said an eminent detector of imposters 4, ' must be cautious
how they enter the lists with Dr. Johnson.' He wrote many
political tracts since his pension. Perhaps he would not have
written at all, unless impelled by gratitude 5. But he wrote his
genuine thoughts, and imagined himself contending on the right
side. A great parliamentary character seems to resolve all his
1 Ante, i. 390, 452.
2 ' He could distinguish and divide
A hair 'twixt south and south
west side ;
On either which he would
dispute,
Confute, change hands, and
still confute.'
Hudibras, i. I. 67.
3 Revolutionist was one who up
held the principles of 'the glorious
Revolution.' The Revolution Society
was * a Club which had a yearly
festival [on November 4, the birth
day of the Prince of Orange] in
commemoration of the events of
1688.' Stanhope's Life of Pitt,
ii. 65.
In the Scots Magazine, 1773, p.
613, it is recorded :—' On Nov. 15
there was a general meeting of the
members of the Revolution club in
Edinburgh, when several constitu
tional and patriotic toasts were given,
suitable to the occasion. His ex
cellency, Sir Adolphus Oughton [the
Commander in Chief in Scotland]
proposed that the members should
for the future on Nov. 15 meet early,
and walk in procession to church,
where a sermon should be preached
on Revolution principles. The pro
posal was unanimously agreed to.'
Nov. 15 was the same as Nov. 4, Old
Style.
4 Dr. Douglas, * the scourge of im
postors, the terror of quacks,' as
Goldsmith calls him in Retaliation.
Life, i. 229.
5 * He complained to a Right Hon
ourable friend, that his pension hav
ing been given to him as a literary
character, he had been applied to by
administration to write political pam
phlets ; and he was even so much
irritated, that he declared his resolu
tion to resign his pension.' Ib. ii.
317. See ante, i. 418.
American
by Thomas Tyers. 357
American notions into the vain expectation of rocking a man in
the cradle of a child z. Johnson recounted the number of his
opponents with indifference. He wrote for that government
which had been generous to him. He was too proud to call
upon Lord Bute, or leave his name at his house2, though he
was told it would be agreeable to his Lordship, for he said
he had performed the greater difficulty, for he had taken the
pension.
The last popular work, to him an easy and a pleasing one, was
the writing the lives of our poets, now reprinted in four octavo
volumes. He finished this business so much to the satisfaction
of the booksellers that they presented him a gratuity of one
hundred pounds, having paid him three hundred pounds as his
price3. The Knaptons made Tindal a large present on the success
of his translation of Rapin's history4. But an unwritten space
must be found for what Johnson did respecting Shakspeare.
For the writer and reader observe a disorder of time in this page.
He took so many years to publish his edition, that his subscribers
grew displeased and clamorous for their books 5, which he might
have prevented. For he was able to do a great deal in a little
time. Though for collation he was not fit. He could not pore
long on a text6. It was Columbus at the oar. It was on most
1 ' We may as well think of rock- guineas by this work in the course of
ing a grown man in the cradle of an 25 years.' 2b. in. in, n. I.
infant.' Burke's Works, ed. 1808, 4 ' I am credibly informed that the
iii. 189. Knaptons will get 8 or ;£ 10,000 by
2 He called on him to thank him that History.' Gentleman' s Magazine^
for the pension. Life, i. 374. See 1734, p. 490. They had a share also
Hawkins, p. 394, and ante, i. 418. in Johnson's Dictionary. Life, i. 183.
3 He received 200 guineas by s Ib. 1.319; ante, i. 422.
agreement, 100 guineas as a present, 6 * The collator's province is safe
and ^100 for revising a new edition. and easy. ... I collated such copies
Life, iii. in; iv. 35, n. 3; Letters, as I could procure, but have not
ii. 275. The booksellers' generosity found the collectors of these rarities
was not great, for Johnson in his very communicative. By examining
work had gone far beyond their ex- the old copies I soon found that the
pectations and his own intention later publishers, with all their boasts
(Life, iv. 35, n. i), while the sum of diligence, suffered many passages
which he had asked for was absurdly to stand unauthorised, and contented
small. He might, says Malone, have themselves with Rowe's regulation
had 1,500 guineas. The booksellers, of the text These corruptions I
he adds, ' have probably got 5,000 have often silently rectified. . . . Con-
literary
358 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
literary points difficult to get himself into a willingness to work.
He was idle, or unwell, or loth to act upon compulsion. But at
last he tried to awake his faculties, and, like the lethargic porter
of the castle of Indolence, ' to rouse himself as much, as rouse
himself he can V He confessed that the publication of his
Shakspeare answered to him in every respect. He had a very
large subscription2.
Dr. Campbell, then alive in Queen-square 3, who had a volume
in his hand, pronounced that the preface and notes were worth
the whole subscription money. You would think the text not
approved or adjusted by the past or present editions, and re
quiring to be settled by the future. It is hoped that the next
editors will have read all the books that Shakspeare read : a pro
mise our Johnson gave, but was not able to perform 4.
The reader is apprized, that this memoir is only a sketch of
life, manner, and writings —
jecture, though it be sometimes un
avoidable, I have not wantonly nor
licentiously indulged. It has been
my settled principle that the reading
of the ancient books is probably
true. ... I have endeavoured to per
form my task with no slight solici
tude. Not a single passage in the
whole work has appeared to me cor
rupt, which I have not attempted to
restore; or obscure, which I have
not endeavoured to illustrate.' John
son's Shakespeare, Preface, pp. 61,
69-
' It would be difficult to name a
more slovenly, a more worthless
edition of any great classic.' Mac-
aulay's Misc. Works, ed. 1871, p.
385. 'Johnson's vigorous and com
prehensive understanding threw more
light on his author than all his pre
decessors had done.' Malone's Shake
speare, ed. 1821, i. 245. * Johnson's
preface and notes are distinguished
by clearness of thought and diction,
and by masterly common sense.' Cam
bridge Shakespeare, i. Preface, p. 36.
'Then taking his black staff
he call'd his man,
And rous'd himself as much
as rouse himself he can.'
Canto i. 24.
2 On April 16, 1757, he wrote :—
'The subscription, though it does
not quite equal perhaps my utmost
hope, for when was hope not dis
appointed ?— yet goes on tolerably.'
Letters, i. 73. See also ib. i. 124,
n. 2, and ante, ii. 320.
3 ' Queen's Square is an area of a
peculiar kind, it being left open on
one side for the sake of the beautiful
landscape formed by the hills of
Highgate and Hampstead, together
with the adjacent fields. A delicacy
worthy [of imitation].' Dodsley's
London, 1761, v. 240. See also ante,
ii. 51 n.
4 In his Proposals Johnson said : —
' The editor will endeavour to read
the books which the author read,
to trace his knowledge to its source,
and compare his copies with their
originals.' Works, v. 100.
'In
by Thomas Tyers.
359
* In every work regard the writer's end ;
For none can compass more than they intend1.'
It looks forwards and backwards almost at the same time. Like
the nightingale in Strada, 'it hits imperfect accents here and
there V Hawkesworth, one of the Johnsonian school 3, upon being
asked, whether Johnson was a happy man, by a gentleman who
had been just introduced to him, and wanted to know every thing
about him, confessed, that he looked upon him as a most miserable
being. The moment of enquiry was probably about the time
he lost his wife, and sent for Hawkesworth, in the most earnest
manner, to come and give him consolation and his company4.
' And skreen me from the ills of life ! ' is the conclusion of his
sombrous poem on November5. In happier moments (for who is
1 * Since none,' &c.
Pope, Essay on Criticism, 1. 255.
2 Addison, in The Giiardian, No.
119, describes how in Strada's Pro
lusions ' Claudian had chosen for his
subject the famous contest between
the nightingale and the lutanist,
which every one is acquainted with,
especially since Mr. Phillips has so
finely improved that hint in one of
his Pastorals.' In this Pastoral (No.
v) is found the line : —
1 And adds in sweetness what she
wants in strength.'
3 ' Hawkesworth was Johnson's
closest imitator.' Life, i. 252, Courte-
nay, in his Lines on Johnson, says : —
' By nature's gifts ordain'd man
kind to rule,
He, like a Titian, form'd his
brilliant school.
Ingenious Hawkesworth to this
school we owe,
And scarce the pupil from the
tutor know.'
In this school he places also Gold
smith, Reynolds, Burney, Malone,
Steevens, Jones and Bos well. Life,
i. 222. All of Johnson's school, ac
cording to Reynolds, 'were distin
guished for a love of truth and ac
curacy, which they would not have
possessed in the same degree if they
had not been acquainted with John
son.' 16. iii. 230. See ante, ii. 227.
4 ' He deposited the remains of
Mrs. Johnson in the church of Brom
ley, in Kent, to which he was probably
led by the residence of his friend
Hawkesworth at that place.' Life,
i. 241 ; ante, i. 399.
5 The Winter's Walk is the name
of the poem. ' It is remarkable, that
in this first edition of The Winter's
Walk, the concluding line is much
more Johnsonian than it was after
wards printed ; for in subsequent
editions, after praying Stella to
" snatch him to her arms," he says,
" And shield me from the ills of
life."
Whereas in the first edition it is
" And hide me from the sight of
life." ' Life, i. 179.
The Winter's Walk, I feel sure,
is not by Johnson, though he may
have supplied Hawkesworth, who
probably wrote it, with a line or two.
Ib. p. 178, n. 2.
not
360 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
not subject to every skyey influence, and the evil of the hour I ?)
he would argue, and prove it in a sort of dissertation, that there
was, generally and individually, more of natural and moral good,
than of the contrary 2. He asserted, that no man could pronounce
he did not feel more pleasure than misery. Every body would
not answer in the affirmative ; for an ounce of pain outweighs
a pound of pleasure. There are people who wish they had never
been born — to whom life is a disease — and whose apprehensions
of dying pains and of futurity embitter every thing. The reader
must not think it impertinent to remark, that Johnson did not
choose to pass his whole life in celibacy. Perhaps the raising
up a posterity may be a debt and duty all men owe to those who
have lived before them. Johnson had a daughter, who died before
its mother, if this pen is not mistaken 3. When these were
gone, he lost his hold on life, for he never married again. He
has expressed a surprize that Sir Isaac Newton continued totally
unacquainted with the female sex, which is asserted by Voltaire,
from the information of Cheselden 4, and is admitted to be true.
For curiosity, the first and most durable of the passions, might
have led him to overcome that inexperience. This pen may as
well finish this last point in the words of Fontenelle, that Sir
Isaac never was married, and perhaps never had time to think
of it 5. Whether the sun-shine of the world upon our author
raised his drooping spirits, or that the lenient hand of time re
moved something from him, or that his health meliorated by
mingling more with the croud of mankind, or not, he however
apparently acquired more chearfulness, and became more fit for
1 ' A breath thou art, 4 (Euvres de Voltaire, ed. 1819,
Servile to all the skiey influences xxiv. 70.
That do this habitation where 5 * II ne s'est point marie, et peut-
thou keep'st etre n'a t-il pas eu le loisir d'y penser
Hourly afflict.' jamais, abime' d'abord dans des
Measure for Measure, Act iii. sc. i. etudes profondes et continuelles pen-
1. 7. For the effect of ' the skiey in- dant la force de Page, occupe ensuite
fluences' on Johnson see Life, i. d'une charge importante, et meme
332. de sa grande consideration, qui ne
2 For his unhappy thoughts on life lui laissait sentir nf vuide dans sa
see ib. i. 213, 331, n. 6, 343 ; ii. 125 ; vie ni besoin d'une societe domes-
iv. 300 ; ante, ii. 256. tique.' Eloge de Newton, ed. 1728,
3 He never had a child. p. 36.
the
by Thomas Tyers. 361
the labours of life and his literary function1. But he'certainly
did not communicate to every intruder every uneasy sensation of
mind and body2. Who, it may be asked, can determine of the
pleasure and pain of others ? True and solemn are the lines of
Prior, in his Solomon 3 :
' Who breathes must suffer, and who thinks must mourn ;
And he alone is blest, who ne'er was born.'
Johnson thought he had no right to complain of his lot in life,
or of having been disappointed : the world had not used him ill :
it had not broke its word with him : it had promised him
nothing : he aspired to no elevation : he had fallen from no
height4. Lord Gower endeavoured to obtain for him, by the
interest of Swift, the mastership of a grammar-school of small
income, for which Johnson was not qualified by the statutes to
become a candidate. His lordship's letter, published some years
ago, is to the honour of the subject : in praise of his abilities
and integrity, and in commiseration of his distressed situation 5.
Johnson wished, for a moment, to fill the chair of a professor,
at Oxford, then become vacant, but he never applied for it. He
was offered a good living, by Mr. Langton, if he would accept it,
and take orders: but he chose not to put off his lay habit6.
He would have made an admirable library-keeper7: like
1 ' It pleased God to grant him 4 ' JOHNSON. " Sir, I have never
almost thirty years of life, after this complained of the world, nor do I
time [the death of his wife] ; and think that I have reason to corn-
once, when he was in a placid frame plain."' Life, iv. 116. 'The world
of mind, he was obliged to own to is not so unjust or unkind as it is
me that he had enjoyed happier peevishly represented.' Letters, ii.
days, and had many more friends, 215. See also ante, i. 315.
since that gloomy hour than before.' 5 Ante, i. 373 ; Life, i. 133.
Life, i. 299. 6 Ante, ii. 107 ; Life, i. 320.
2 Boswell, writing of the year 1769, 7 'Mr. Levet this day shewed me
says : — * His Meditations strongly Dr. Johnson's library, which was
prove that he suffered much both in contained in two garrets over his
body and mind. . . . Every generous Chambers. I found a number of
and grateful heart . . . now that his good books, but very dusty and in
unhappiness is certainly known, must great confusion. The floor was
respect that dignity of character strewed with manuscript leaves, in
which prevented him from complain- Johnson's own hand-writing.' Life,
ing.' Ib. ii. 66. i. 435.
3 Bk. iii. 1. 240.
Casaubon
362 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
Casaubon, Magliabechi, or "Bentley *. But he belonged to the
world at large. Talking on the topic of what his inclinations or
faculties might have led him to have been, had he been bred to
the profession of the law, he has said he should have wished for
the Office of Master of the Rolls2. He gave into this idea in
table-talk, partly serious and partly jocose, for it was only
a manner he had of describing himself to his friends without
vanity of his parts (for he was above being vain) or envy of the
honourable stations engaged by other men of merit. He would
correct any compositions of his friends (habes confitentem) 3, and
dictate on any subject on which they wanted information4. He
could have been an orator, if he would 5. On account of his
intimacy with Dr. Dodd, for whom he made a bargain with the
booksellers for his edition of the Bible, he wrote a petition to the
Crown for mercy, after his condemnation 6. The letter he com
posed for the translator of Ariosto, that was sent to Mr. Hastings
in Bengal, is esteemed a master-piece7. Dr. Warton, of Win-
1 Casaubon was King's Librarian
in Paris, and Bentley in London ;
Magliabecchi was the Grand Duke's
Librarian at Florence.
2 ' Sir William Scott informs me,
that upon the death of the late Lord
Lichfield, who was Chancellor of the
University of Oxford, he said to
Johnson, " What a pity it is, Sir, that
you did not follow the profession of
the law. You might have been Lord
Chancellor of Great Britain, and
attained to the dignity of the peer
age ; and now that the title of Lich
field, your native city, is extinct you
might have had it." Johnson, upon
this, seemed much agitated ; and, in
an angry tone, exclaimed, "Why
will you vex me by suggesting this,
when it is too late ?" ' Life, iii.
309.
3 Ante, i. 332 ; ii. 7. Tyers was
the author of two or three books.
* That great man [Dr. Johnson] has
acknowledged behind his back that
1' Tyers always tells him something
he did not know before." ' Nichols,
Literary Anecdotes, viii. 88 n.
4 See Life, ii. 183, 196, 242, 372-3 ;
iii. 200 ; iv. 74, 129, for legal argu
ments dictated to Boswell.
5 ' When Sir Joshua Reynolds told
him that Mr. Edmund Burke had said,
that if he had come early into par
liament, he certainly would have been
the greatest speaker that ever was
there, Johnson exclaimed, " I should
like to try my hand now." . . . Sir
William Scott mentioned that John
son had told him that he had several
times tried to speak in the Society of
Arts and Sciences, but " had found
he could not get on." ' Ib. ii. 138.
6 Dodd published in 1771 a Com
mentary on the Old and New Testa
ment. Johnson had been but once
in Dodd's company, and that was in
1750. Life, iii. 140. It is most un
likely that he made any bargain for
him. For his petition see ib. iii.
142 ; ante, i. 432 ; ii. 282.
7 Life, iv. 70.
Chester
by Thomas Tyers. 363
chester, talked of it as the very best he ever read. He could
have been eminent, if he chose it, in letter writing, a faculty in
which, according to Sprat, his Cowley excelled x. His epistolary
and confidential correspondence would make an agreeable publica
tion, but the world will never be trusted with it 2. He wrote as
well in verse as in prose. Though he composed so harmoniously
in Latin and English, he had no ear for music 3 : and though he
lived in such habits of intimacy with Sir Joshua Reynolds, and
once intended to have written the lives of the painters, he had
no eye, nor perhaps taste for a picture, nor a landscape4. He
renewed his Greek some years ago, for which he found no occasion
for twenty years. He owned that many knew more Greek than
himself; but that his grammar would show he had once taken
pains. Sir William Jones, one of the most enlightened of the
sons of men, as Johnson described him, has often said, he knew
a great deal of Greek 5. With French authors he was familiar.
He had lately read over the works of Boileau6. He passed
a judgment on Sherlock's French and English letters, and told
him there was more French in his English, than English in his
French7. His curiosity would have led him to read Italian,
even if Baretti had not been his acquaintance8. Latin was as
natural to him as English. He seemed to know the readiest
1 Johnson says of Sprat's Life of from the French. Horace Walpole
Cowley that ' his zeal of friendship or wrote of him (Letters, vii. 462) : —
ambition of eloquence has produced ' His Italian is ten times worse than
a funeral oration rather than a his- his French, and more bald.'
tory.' Works, vii. I. 8 He had learnt Italian before he
2 Less than four years later Mrs. knew Baretti. Life,\. 115, 156. He
Piozzi published more than 300 of studied it also later in life. In 1776
his letters ; she was followed in three he ' purposed to apply vigorously to
years by Boswell, who gave nearly study, particularly of the Greek and
340 more. There are now more than Italian tongues.' Ante, i. 77. In
a thousand in print. 1781 he recorded : — ' Having prayed,
3 Ante, ii. 103. I purpose to employ the next six
4 Ante, i. 214. weeks upon the Italian language for
5 Life, iv. 384; ante, i. 183. my settled study.' Ante, i. 99. Less
6 Ante, i. 334. than four months before his death he
7 Martin Sherlock first published wrote to Sastres, the Italian master: —
in Italian and in French the work ' I have hope of standing the Eng-
which, in 1781, he brought out in lish winter, and of seeing you, and
English under the title of Letters reading Petrarch at Bolt Court.'
of an English Traveller translated Letters, ii. 417.
road
364 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
road to knowledge, and to languages, their conductors. He
made such progress in Hebrew, in a few lessons, that surprized
his guide in that tongue. In company with Dr. Barnard and the
fellows at Eton, he astonished them all with the display of his
critical, classical, and prosodical treasures, and also himself, for he
protested, on his return, he did not know he was so rich x.
Christopher Smart was at first well received by Johnson2.
This writer owed his acquaintance with our author, which lasted
thirty years, to the introduction of that bard. Johnson, whose
hearing was not always good, understood he called him by the
name of Thy er, 'that eminent scholar, librarian of Manchester,
and a Nonjuror. This mistake was rather beneficial than other
wise to the person introduced. Johnson had been much indis
posed all that day, and repeated a psalm he had just translated,
during his affliction, into Latin verse, and did not commit to
paper. For so retentive was the memory of this man, that
he could always recover whatever he lent to that faculty.
Smart in return recited some of his own Latin compositions.
He had translated with success/ and to Mr. Pope's satisfaction,
his St. Cecilian Ode3. Come when you would, early or late,
for he desired to be called from bed, when a visitor was at
the door ; the tea-table was sure to be spread', Te veniente die,
Te decedente*. — With tea he cheered himself in the morning,
with tea he solaced himself in the evening5; for in these, or in
equivalent words, he exprest himself in a printed letter to Jonas
Han way, who had just told the public that tea was the ruin of
the nation, and of the nerves of every one who drank it 6. The
1 For Dr. Barnard see ante, i. 168, 3 ' When Smart offered himself as
and for the invitation given to John- a candidate for a university scholar-
son to visit Eton, Life, v. 97. Bos- ship he is said to have translated
well visited the College in 1789. Pope's Ode on St. Cecilia 's Day into
* I was asked by the Headmaster to Latin.' Chalmers's Biog. Diet, xxviii.
dine at the Fellows' table, and made 77.
a creditable figure. ... I had my 4 Virgil, Georgics, iv. 466.
classical quotations very ready.' Ib. s ( Who with tea amuses the even-
v. 15, n. 5. ing, with tea solaces the midnight,
2 Tyers seems to imply that later and with tea welcomes the morning.'
on Johnson did not receive Smart Life, i. 313, n. 4.
well. At all events he befriended 6 Ib. i. 313.
him. Ib. ii. 345.
pun
by Thomas Tyers. 365
pun upon his favourite liquor he heard with a smile. v Though
his time seemed to be bespoke, and quite engrossed, it is certain
his house was open to all his acquaintance, new and old x. His
amanuensis has given up his pen, the printer's devil has waited
on the stairs for a proof sheet, and the press has often stood still.
His visitors were delighted and instructed. No subject ever
came amiss to him. He could transfer his thoughts from one
thing to another with the most accommodating facility. He had
the art, for which Locke was famous, of leading people to talk
on their favourite subjects, and on what they knew best 2. By
this he acquired a great deal of information. What he once
heard he rarely forgot. They gave him their best conversation,
and he generally made them pleased with themselves, for
endeavouring to please him. Poet Smart used to relate, ' that
the first conversation with him was of such variety and length,
that it began with poetry arid ended at fluxions.' He always
talked as if he was talking upon oath3. He was the wisest
person, and had the most knowledge in ready cash 4, this writer
had the honour to be acquainted with — Here a little pause must
be endured. The poor hand that holds the pen is benumbed by
the frost as much as by a torpedo 5. It is cold within, by the
1 'Johnson, during the whole course said of me what flattered me much,
of his life, had no shyness, real or A clergyman was complaining of
affected, but was easy of access to want of society in the country where
all who were properly recommended, he lived ; and said, ' They talk of
and even wished to see numbers at runts ;' (that is, young cows). 'Sir,
his levee, as his morning circle of (said Mrs. Salusbury,) Mr. Johnson
company might, with strict pro- would learn to talk of runts.' " ' Life,
priety, be called.' Life, i. 247. iii. 337-
2 ' Locke felt pleasure in conversing Tyers forgets to record his own
with all sorts of people, and tried to description of Johnson's talk. ' Tom
profit by their information, which Tyers described me the best : — " Sir
arose . . . from the opinion he enter- (said he) you are like a ghost; you
tained that there was nobody from never speak till you are spoken to." '
whom something useful could not be Ib. iii. 307 ; ante, i. 290.
got. And indeed by this means he 3 Life, ii. 434 ; ante, i. 458.
had learned so many things concern- 4 Life, ii. 256.
ing the arts and trade, that he 5 ' Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee
seemed to have made them his par- in conversation ; but no sooner does
ticular study.' King's Life of Locke, he take a pen in his hand, than it
ed. 1858, p. 271. becomes a torpedo to him, and be-
' JOHNSON. " Mrs.Thrale's mother numbs all his faculties.' Ib. i. 159.
fire-side
366 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
fire-side, and a white world abroad z. His reader has a moment's
leisure to censure or commend the harvest of anecdote that is
brought in, for his sake ; and if he has more reading than usual,
may remark for or against it in the manner of the Cardinal to
Ariosto : ( All this may be true, extraordinary, and entertaining ;
but where the deuce did you pick it all up2?' The writer perhaps
comes within the proverbial observation, that the inquisitive
person ends often in the character of the tell-tale. Johnson's
advice was consulted on all occasions. He was known to be
a good casuist3, and therefore had many cases for his judgment4.
It is notorious, that some men had the wickedness to over-reach
him, and to injure him. till they were found out. Lauder was of
the number, who made, at the time, all the friends of Milton
his enemies 5. There is nobody so likely to be imposed upon as
a good man. His conversation, in the judgment of several, was
thought to be equal to his correct writings 6. Perhaps the tongue
will throw out more animated expressions than the pen. He said
the most common things in the newest manner. He always
commanded attention and regard. His person, though un
adorned with dress, and even deformed by neglect, made you
expect something, and you was hardly ever disappointed. His
manner was interesting ; the tone of his voice and the sincerity
of his expressions, even when they did not captivate your
affections, or carry conviction, prevented contempt. It must
be owned, his countenance, on some occasions, resembled too
much the medallic likeness of Magliabechi, as exhibited before
the printed account of him by Mr. Spence7. No man dared to
1 Tyers wrote his narrative directly 4 Ante, i. 300.
after Johnson's death. For * the 5 Ante, i. 393.
white world ' see Letters, ii. 433. 6 Life, ii. 95, n. 2 ; iv. 236 ; ante,
2 ' Je ne sais quel plaisant a fait i. 348.
courir le premier ce mot pre'tendu 7 * Magliabechi had almost the air
du Cardinal d'Este : Messer Lodovico, of a savage, and even affected it;
dove avete pigliato tante coglio- together with a cynical or contemp-
nerieT (Euvres de Voltaire, ed. tuous smile.' Spence's Parallel.
1819, xxxv. 434. See Fugitive Pieces on Various Sub-
3 For his casuistry in the defence jects, ed. 1761, ii. 332, where the
of duelling see Life, n. 179,226; iv. likeness is given. ' Magliabechi's
211 ; and of dining with two Bishops nose was aquiline, and his face
in Passion Week, ib. iv. 88. generally drawn into a kind of cynical
take
by Thomas Tyers.
367
take liberties with him, nor flatly contradict him ; for fre could
repell any attack, having always about him the weapons of
ridicule, of wit, and of argument *. It must be owned, that some
who had the desire to be admitted to him, thought him too
dogmatical, and as exacting too much homage to his opinions,
and came no more. For they said, while he presided in his
library, surrounded by his admirers, he would, ' like Cato, give
his little senate laws2.' He had great knowledge in the science
of human nature, and of the fashions and customs of life, and
knew the world well. He had often in his mouth this line
of Pope,
' The proper study of mankind is man V
He was desirous of surveying life in all its modes and forms, and
in all climates. Twenty years ago he offered to attend his
friend Vansittart to India, who was invited there to make
a fortune ; but it did not take place 4. He talked much of
travelling into Poland, to observe the life of the Palatines 5, the
grin.' Gentleman's Magazine, 1759,
p. 52. See also ante, ii. 87, 141.
1 ' When exasperated by contra
diction Johnson was apt to treat his
opponents with too much acrimony,
as " Sir, you don't see your way
through that question." — " Sir, you
talk the language of ignorance.'"
Life, ii. 122. Boswell records how
Johnson, ' determined to be master
of the field, had recourse to the de
vice which Goldsmith imputed to
him in the witty words of one of
Gibber's comedies : " There is no
arguing with Johnson ; for when his
pistol misses fire, he knocks you
down with the butt end of it." ' Ib. ii.
100. See also ib. iv. 274; v. 292.
Goldsmith referred to the following
passage in The Refusal, Act i. sc. I
(Colley Gibber's Plays, ed. 1777, iv.
22):-
* GRANGER. "Pr'ythee, Witling,
does not thy Assurance sometimes
meet with a Repartee, that only lights
upon the Outside of thy Head?"
' WITLING. " O ! your Servant, Sir.
What ! now your Fire's gone, you
would knock me down with the Butt-
end, would you ? " '
2 Pope, Prologue to the Satires,
1. 209.
3 Essay on Man, ii. 2.
4 See Life, iii. 20, where Johnson
tells a story of a friend who 'got
a considerable appointment [in the
East Indies]. I had some intention
of accompanying him. Had I thought
then as I do now, I should have
gone.' In 1769 Mr. Vansittart was
sent to India with two others as
Supervisors. Their ship was lost on
the way and nothing was ever known
of their fate. Annual Register, 1769,
i- 53 I 1773, i- 66.
5 'The Palatines and Castellans
were governors of the palatinates or
provinces, and held the office for
life ; the palatine having the direc
tion of the whole province, like our
account
368 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
account of which struck his curiosity very much. His Rasselas
it is reported, he wrote to raise a purse of pecuniary assistance to
his aged mother at Lichfield1. The first title of his manuscript,
was Prince of Ethiopia'2. Mr. Bruce is expected to give us
a history of both these countries 3. The Happy valley he would
hardly be able to find in Abyssinia. Dr. Young used to say,
that ' Rasselas was a lamp of wisdom V He there displays an
uncommon capacity for remark, and makes the best use of the
description of travellers. It is an excellent romance. But his
journey into the Western Islands is an original thing. He hoped,
as he said, when he came back, that no Scotchman had any right
to be angry with what he wrote 5. It is a book written without
the assistance of books. He said, ' it was his wish and endeavour
not to make a single quotation 6.' His curiosity must have been
excessive, and his strength undecayed to accomplish a journey of
such length, and subject to such inconvenience. His book was
eagerly read* One of the first men of the age7 told Mr. Garrick,
'that he would forgive Johnson all his wrong notions respecting
America, on account of his writing that book.' He thought
himself the hardier for travelling. He took a tour into France8,
and meditated another into Italy 9 or Portugal, for the sake of
the climate. But Dr. Brocklesby, his friend and physician (and
who that knows him can wish for more companionable and
more professional knowledge ?) conjured him, by every argument
lord-lieutenant, the castellan of a was said in a preface to one of the
district.' Morfill's Poland, p. 346. Irish editions that Swift had never
For Johnson's love of travelling been known to take a single thought
see Life, iii. 449. from any writer, ancient or modern.
1 Ib. i. 341 ; ante, i. 285,415. This is not literally true; but per-
2 Johnson wrote to Mr. Strahan : haps no writer can easily be found
— 'The title will be "The Choice that has borrowed so little, or that
of Life or The History of ... Prince in all his excellencies and all his
of Abissinia." Letters, i. 79. defects has so well maintained his
3 Though Bruce had returned to claim to be considered as original.'
England in 1774 he did not publish Works, viii. 228.
his Travels till 1790. Ante, i. 365 n. ; Johnson's book has the same claim
ii. 12. to originality.
4 Young greatly admired the Ram- 7 Perhaps Burke, who praised the
bier. Life, i. 215. book. Ante, ii. 6.
5 Ib. ii. 306 ; ante, i. 430. 8 Life, ii. 389.
6 Of Swift Johnson wrote :— < It 9 Ib. ii. 428 ; iv. 326 ; ante, i. 263.
in
by Thomas Tyers. 369
in his power, not to go abroad in the state of his health x ; but
that if he was resolved on the first, and wished for something
additional to his income, desired he would permit him to accom
modate him out of his fortune with one hundred pounds a-year,
during his travels, to be paid by instalments 2.
'Ye little stars hide your diminished heads3.'
The reply to this generosity was to this effect : ' That he would
not be obliged to any person's liberality, but to his King's4/
The continuance of this design to go abroad, occasioned the
application for an increase of pension, that is so honourable to
those who applied for it, and to the Lord Chancellor who gave him
leave to draw on his banker for any sum 5. With the courage of
a man, Johnson demanded to know of Brocklesby if his recovery
was impossible ? Being answered in the affirmative ; ' then,' says
he, ' I will take no more opium, and give up my physicians 6.J
At last he said, ' if I am worse, I cannot go, if I am better
I need not go, but if I continue neither better nor worse, I am as
well where I am.' The writer of this sketch could wish to have
committed to memory or paper all the wise and sensible things
that dropped from his lips. If the one could have been Xeno-
phon, the other was a Socrates. — His benevolence to mankind
was known to all who knew him. Though so declared a friend
to the Church of England and even a friend to the Convocation 7,
1 'My journey to the continent ... 4 Windham says (post, p. 388),
was never much encouraged by my that when Dr. Brocklesby made this
physicians.' Life, iv. 349. offer ' Johnson pressed his hands and
2 'As an instance of extraordinary said, "God bless you through Jesus
liberality of friendship, he told us, that Christ, but I will take no money
Dr. Brocklesby had upon this occa- but from my sovereign." This, if
sion offered him a hundred a year for I mistake not, was told the King
his life. A grateful tear started into through West.'
his eye, as he spoke this in a falter- 5 Ante, i. 442.
ing tone.' Ib. iv. 338. See id. n. 2 6 Life, iv. 415.
for Brocklesby's ' liberality of friend- This was a few days before his
ship ' towards Burke, and ante, i. 443. death. Tyers in the next paragraph
3 ' At whose sight all the stars returns to the project of the visit to
Hide their diminish'd heads.' Italy formed some months earlier.
Paradise Lost, iv. 34. 7 Ib. i. 464 ; iv- 277-
' Ye little stars ! hide your Smollett, after describing the meet-
diminish'd rays.' ing of Convocation in 1717, con-
Pope, Moral Essays, iii. 282. tinues : — ' The Convocation has not
VOL. II. B b it
370 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
it assuredly was not in his wish to persecute for speculative
notions x. He used to say he had no quarrel with any order of
men, unless they disbelieved in revelation and a future state2.
He would indeed have sided with Sacheverell against Daniel
Burgess3, if he thought the Church was in danger. His hand
and his heart were always open to charity. The objects under
his own roof were only a few of the subjects for relief. He was
at the head of subscription in cases of distress. His guinea, as
he said of another man of a bountiful disposition, was always
ready. He wrote an exhortation to public bounty. He drew
up a paper to recommend the French prisoners, in the last war
but one, to the English benevolence 4 ; which was of service. He
implored the hand of benevolence for others 5 ; even when he
almost seemed a proper object of it himself.
Like his hero Savage, while in company with him, he is
supposed to have formerly strolled about the streets almost house
less 6, and as if he was obliged to go without the cheerful meal
of the day, or to wander about for one, as is reported of Homer.
been permitted to sit and do business
since that period.' History of Eng
land, ed. 1800, ii. 358.
' The practice continues to the
present day [1837] of summoning
the clergy to meet in convocation
whenever a new parliament is called,
and the forms of election are gone
through. ... It is the usual practice
for the King to prorogue the meeting
when it is about to proceed to any
business.' Penny Cyclopaedia, 1837,
vii. 489.
1 The spirituality at last aroused
itself from its long repose in 1852. ...
The first action of Convocation as
a deliberative body commenced in
1 86 1.' Encyclopaedia Britannica,
9th ed., vi. 329.
1 * In short, Sir, I have got no
further than this : Every man has
a right to utter what he thinks truth,
and every other man has a right to
knock him down for it. Martyrdom
is the test.' L:fe, iv. 12. See also
ib. ii. 250, 254.
a * Every man who attacks my
belief, diminishes in some degree my
confidence in it, and therefore makes
me uneasy ; and I am angry with
him who makes me uneasy.' Ib.
iii. 10.
3 Ib. i. 39. Hearne recorded on
March 4, 1709-10: — 'The mob are
so zealous for Dr. Sacheverell that
they have pulled down several meet
ing-houses of the dissenters in Lon
don, amongst which is the meeting
house of that old presbyterian rogue
Daniel Burgess.' Reliquiae Her-
nianae, 1869, i. 187. See The Tatler,
No. 66 (by Swift), where Burgess is
ridiculed.
4 Life, i. 353.
5 Ib. ii. 379; iii. 124; iv. 283,
408 n. ; Letters, ii. 64, 66, 113.
6 Life, i. 162 ; ante, i. 371.
If
by Thomas Tyers. 371
If this were true, it is no wonder if he was an unknown, or
uninquired after for a long time :
' Slow rises worth by poverty depressed V
When once distinguished, as he observes of Ascham, he gained
admirers58. He was fitted by nature for a critic. His Lives of
the Poets (like all his biographical pieces) are well written.
He gives us the pulp without the husks. He has told their
personal history very well. But every thing is not new. Perhaps
what Mr. Steevens helped him to, has increased the number
of the best anecdotes 3. But his criticisms of their works are of
the most worth, and the greatest novelty. His perspicacity was
very extraordinary. He was able to take measure of every
intellectual object, and to see all round it. If he chose to
plume himself as an author, he might on account of the gift of
intuition,
'The brightest feather in the eagle's wing.'
He has been censured for want of taste or good nature in what
he says of Prior4, Gray5, Lyttelton6, Hammond7, and others, and
to have praised some pieces that nobody thought highly of. It
was a fault in our critic too often to take occasion to show him
self superior to his subject, and also to trample upon it. There
is no talking about taste. Perhaps Johnson, who spoke from
his last feelings, forgot those of his youth. The love verses of
Waller and others have no charms for old age. Even Prior's
Henry and Emma, which pleased the old and surly Dennis8,
1 Johnson's London, 1. 121. 4 Cowper wrote soon after the
Goldsmith wrote to his brother publication of the Lives : — ' Prior's
Henry in 1759: — ' The greatest merit reputation as an author, who, with
in a state of poverty would only serve much labour indeed, but with ad-
to make the possessor ridiculous — mirable success, has embellished all
may distress but cannot relieve him. his poems with the most charming
Frugality, and even avarice, in the verse, stood unshaken till Johnson
lower orders of mankind, are true thrust his head against it.' Cowper's
ambition.' Prior's Goldsmith, i. 300, Works, ed. 1836, iv. 175.
2 ' A man once distinguished soon s Ante, i. 479.
gains admirers.' Works, vi. 512. 6 Ante, i. 257 ; ii. 193.
3 ' Mr. Steevens appears, from the 7 Life, v. 268.
papers in my possession, to have 8 Dennis was only seven years
supplied him with some anecdotes older than Prior,
and quotations.' Life, iv. 37. ' Mrs. Thrale disputed with Dr.
B b 2, had
372 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
had no charms for him. Of Gray he always spoke as he wrote,
and called his poetry artificial1. If word and thought go together
the odes of Gray were not to the satisfaction of our critic. But
what composition can stand this sharp-sighted critic ? He made
some fresh observations on Milton, by placing him in a new point
of view : and if he has shown more of his excellencies than
Addison does, he accompanies them with more defects. He
took no critic from the shelf, neither Aristotle, Bossu, nor
Boileau. He hardly liked to quote, much more to steal. He
drew his judgments from the principles of human nature, of
which the Rambler is full, before the Elements of Criticism,
by Lord Kames 2, made their appearance.
It may be inserted here, that Johnson, soon after his coming
to London, had thought of writing a History of the revival of
Learning3. The booksellers had other service to offer him4.
But he never undertook it. The proprietors of the Universal
History 5 wished him to take any part in that voluminous work.
But he declined their offer. His last employers wanted him to
undertake the life of Spenser6. But he said Warton had left
Johnson on the merit of Prior. He
attacked him powerfully; said he
wrote of love like a man who had
never felt it: his love verses were
college verses ; and he repeated the
song " Alexis shunn'd his fellow
swains," &c., in so ludicrous a man
ner, as to make us all wonder how
any one could have been pleased
with such fantastical stuff.' Life, ii. 78.
' The greatest of all Prior's amorous
essays is Henry and Emma ; a dull
and tedious dialogue.' Works, viii. 16.
1 Ante, i. 191 ; ii. 52, 320 ; Life, i.
402; ii. 164,327, 334; iv. 13.
2 Life, i. 393 ; ii. 89.
3 Ib. iv. 381, n. i.
4 'The booksellers gave it out as
a piece of literary news, that he had
an inclination to translate the Lives
of Plutarch from the Greek. It
appears from his literary memoran
dum-book that this was one of the
tasks he assigned himself.' Gentle
man's Magazine, 1785, p. 86.
'Among Johnson's papers was
found a translation from Sallust of
the Bellum Catilinarium, so flatly
and insipidly rendered that the
suffering it to appear would have
been an indelible disgrace to his
memory/ Hawkins, p. 541.
5 Letters, ii. 432.
6 His 'last employers' were the
proprietors of the Lives.
See ante, ii. 192, where Hannah
More records : — ' Johnson told me
he had been with the King that
morning, who enjoined him to add
Spenser to his Lives of the Poets'
He told Nichols, who asked him
' to favour the world, and gratify his
sovereign, by a Life of Spenser, that
he would readily have done so had he
been able to obtain any new mate
rials for the purpose.' Life, iv. 410.
little
by Thomas Tyers. 373
little or nothing for him to do. A system of morals next was
proposed \ But perhaps he chose to promise nothing more. He
thought, as, like the running horse in Horace 2, he had done his
best, he should give up the race and the chase. His dependent
Levett died suddenly under his roof. He preserved his name
from oblivion, by writing an epitaph for him, which shows that
his poetical fire was not extinguished, and is so appropriate, that
it could belong to no other person in the world 3. Johnson said,
that the remark of appropriation was just criticism: his friend
was induced to pronounce, that he would not have so good an
epitaph written for himself4. Pope has nothing to equal it in his
sepulchral poetry. When he dined with Mr. Wilkes, at a private
table in the city, their mutual altercations were forgot, at least
for that day5. Johnson did not remember the sharpness of a
paper against his description or definition of an alphabetical point
animadverted upon in his dictionary by that man of acuteness 6 ;
who, in his turn, forgot the severity of a pamphlet of Johnson 7.
All was, during this meal, a reciprocation of wit and good
humour. During the annual contest in the city, Johnson con
fessed, that Wilkes would make a very good Chamberlain8.
When Johnson (who had said that he would as soon dine with
1 Johnson had at one time of 4 For Parr's epitaph on Johnson
his life projected 'A Comparison of see Life, iv. 424; and for his vanity
Philosophical and Christian Mo- about it, ib. 444.
rality, by sentences collected from the 5 Ib. iii. 64. Wilkes, a year later,
moralists and fathers? Life, iv. attacked Johnson in Parliament. Ib.
381, n. i. iii. 79, n. i. 'Lord Mansfield, we
3 ' Solve senescentem mature are informed on the unquestionable
sanus equum.' authority of Mr. Andrew Strahan,
' Loose from the rapid car your was of opinion that " Mr. Wilkes
aged horse.' was the pleasantest companion, the
FRANCIS, HORACE, Epis. i. i. 8. politest gentleman, and the best
3 Life,\v. 137. scholar he ever knew.'" Nichols's
* The difficulty in writing epitaphs Lit. Anec. ix. 479 n. See ib. for
is to give a particular and appro- ' Wilkes's Life of himself. It was
priate praise. This, however, is not not forthcoming. The covers of the
always to be performed, whatever be book remained ; but the leaves were
the diligence or ability of the writer ; all cut out.'
for the greater part of mankind have 6 Life, i. 300.
no character at all.' Works, viii. 7 Ib. ii. 135, n. i ; iii. 64.
355. 8 Ib. iv. 101, n. 2 ; Letters, i. 408.
Jack
374 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
Jack Ketch as with Jack Wilkes x) could sit at the same table
with this patriot, it may be concluded he did not write his
animosities in marble2. — Johnson was famous for saying what
are called good things. Mr. Boswell, who listened to him for
so many years, has probably remembered many. He mentioned
many of them to Paoli 3, who paid him the last tribute of a visit
to his grave. If Johnson had had as good eyes as Boswell
he might have seen more trees in Scotland, perhaps, than he
mentions 4.
This is not the record-office for his sayings : but a few must be
recollected here. For Plutarch has not thought it beneath his
dignity to relate some things of this sort, of some of his heroes 5.
* Pray Dr. Johnson ' (said somebody) ' is the master of the
mansion at Streatham a man of much conversation, or is he only
wise and silent?' 'He strikes/ says Johnson, 'once an hour,
and I suppose strikes right6/ Mr. Thrale left him a legacy7,
and made him an executor. It came to Johnson's ears, that the
great bookseller in the Strand, on receiving the last manuscript
sheet of his Dictionary, had said, * Give Johnson his money, for
I thank God I have done with him.' The philologer took care
that he should receive his compliments, and be informed, 'he
was extremely glad he returned thanks to God for any thing 8.'
1 ' I was persuaded that if I had the various objects upon the road,
come upon him with a direct pro- " If I had your eyes, Sir (said he),
posal, " Sir, will you dine in com- I should count the passengers." '
pany with Jack Wilkes?" he would Life, iv. 311.
have flown into a passion, and would 5 Boswell also shelters himself under
probably have answered, "Dine with the example of Plutarch. Ib. v. 414.
Jack Wilkes, Sir! I'd as soon dine 6 Ante, ii. 169. 'Johnson said, he
with Jack Ketch."3 Life, iii. 66. Bos- was angry at Thrale, for sitting at
well adds in a note : — ' This has General Oglethorpe's without speak-
been circulated as if actually said by ing. He censured a man for de-
Johnson ; when the truth is, it was grading himself to a non-entity.'
only supposed by me.' Life, v. 277.
2 ' Some write their wrongs in 7 ^200. Ib. iv. 86.
marble ; he more just 8 Andrew Millar was the book-
Stooped down serene and wrote seller. He would not have said,
them in the dust/ ' Give Johnson his money,' for ' John-
Ante, ii. 267. son had received all the copy-money
3 Life, i. 432 n. by different drafts a considerable
4 ' He expressed some displeasure time before he had finished his task.'
at me for not observing sufficiently Ib. i. 287.
Well
by Thomas Tyers. 375
Well known is the rude reproof he gave to a talker, who
asserted, that every individual in Scotland had literature.
(By the by, modern statesmen do not wish that every one
in the King's dominions should be able to write and read x.)
' The general learning of the Scotch nation ' (said he, in
a bad humour) 'resembles the condition of a ship's crew,
condemned to short allowance of provisions; every one has
a mouthful, and nobody a belly full V Of this enough. His
size has been described to be large : his mind and person
both on a large scale. His face and features are happily
preserved by Reynolds and by Nollekens 3. His elocution was
energetic, and, in the words of a great scholar in the north, who
did not like him, he spoke in the Lincolnshire dialect4. His
articulation became worse, by some dental losses. But he never
was silent on that account, nor unwilling to talk. It never was
said of him. that he was overtaken with liquor5, a declaration
Bishop Hoadly makes of himself. But he owned that he drank
his bottle at a certain time of life6. Lions, and the fiercest of
the wild creation, drink nothing but water. Like Solomon, who
tried so many things for curiosity and delight, he renounced
strong liquors, (strong liquors, according to Fenton, of all kinds
1 For Johnson's defence of popular they will find me out to be of a par-
education see Life, ii. 188. ticular county.' Ib. ii. 159.
2 * He defended his remark upon Boswell remarked at Lichfield that
the general insufficiency of education 'there was pronounced like fear, in-
in Scotland ; and confirmed to me stead of like fair ; once was pro-
the authenticity of his witty saying nounced woonse, instead of wunse or
on the learning of the Scotch : — ivonse. Johnson himself never got
"Their learning is like bread in a entirely free of those provincial ac-
besieged town ; every man gets a cents.' Ib. ii. 464. At Aberdeen
little, but no man gets a full meal." ' Boswell records:— 'I was sensible
Ib. ii. 363 ; ante, i. 321 ; ii. 5. to-day, to an extraordinary degree,
3 Life, iv. 421, n. 2 ; Letters, ii. of Dr. Johnson's excellent English
59. pronunciation.' Ib. v. 85.
4 The * great scholar ' was perhaps 5 See ante, ii. 322 #., where he
Lord Monboddo ; for his dislike of said : — ' I used to slink home when
Johnson see Life, iv. 273, n. I. John- I had drunk too much.'
son's accent, such as it was, was of 6 * I have drunk three bottles of
course that of Staffordshire. ' Sir,' port without being the worse for it.
he said, ' when people watch me nar- University College has witnessed
rowly, and I do not watch myself, this.* Life, Hi. 245.
were
376 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
were the aversion of Milton z) ; and he might have said, as that
King is made to do by Prior,
1 1 drank, I lik'd it not, 'twas rage, 'twas noise,
An airy scene of transitory joys2.'
His temper was not naturally smooth, but seldom boiled over 3.
It was worth while to find out the mollia tempora /andi*. The
words nugarum contemptor fell often from him, in a reverie.
When asked about them, he said, he appropriated them from
a preface of Dr. Hody. He was desirous of seeing every thing
that was extraordinary in art or nature 5 ; and to resemble his
Imlac6 in his moral romance of Rasselas. It was the fault of
fortune that he did not animadvert on every thing at home and
abroad 7. He had been upon the salt-water, and observed
something of a sea-life : of the uniformity of the scene, and of
the sickness and turbulence belonging to that element, he had
felt enough8. He had seen a little of the military life and
1 ' In his diet he was abstemious ;
not delicate in the choice of his
dishes ; and strong liquors of all
kinds were his aversion,' &c. Milton's
Poems ; ed. Elijah Fenton, 1725.
Preface, p. 26.
' What neat repast shall feast us,
light and choice,
Of Attic taste with wine.'
Milton's Sonnets.
( What more foul common sin
among us than drunkenness ? And
who can be ignorant that if the im
portation of wine and the use of all
strong drink were forbid, it would
both clean rid the possibility of
committing that odious vice, and
men might afterwards live happily
and healthfully without the use of
those intoxicating liquors.' Milton's
Tetrachordon, Works, 1806, ii. 163.
2 Solomon on the Vanity of the
World, Bk. ii. 1. 106.
3 ' He was hard to please and
easily offended ; impetuous and ir
ritable in his temper, but of a most
humane and benevolent heart.' Life,
iv. 426.
' mollissima fandi
Tempora.'
Aeneid, iv. 293.
5 Boswell, recording his visit with
Johnson to a silk-mill at Derby,
says : — ' I had learnt from Dr. John
son, during this interview, not to
think with a dejected indifference of
the works of art, and the pleasures
of life, because life is uncertain and
short ; but to consider such indiffer
ence as a failure of reason, a morbid
ness of mind.' Life, iii. 164.
6 Boswell compares him to Imlac.
Ib. iii. 6. See also ante, ii. 220.
1 Life, iii. 449.
8 At Plymouth in 1762, and among
the Hebrides in 1773. Ib. \. 377 ;
v. 280-4, 308. He had also crossed
the Straits of Dover. Ib. ii. 384.
It was ' a state of life of which
Dr. Johnson always expressed the
greatest abhorrence.' Ib. i. 348; ii.
438 ; iii. 266 ; v. 137 ; ante, \. 335.
discipline
by Thomas Tyers.
377
discipline, by having passed whole days and nights in the camp,
and in the tents, at Warley Common z. He was able to make
himself entertaining in his description of what he had seen.
A spark was enough to illuminate him. The Giant and the
Corsican Fairy were objects of attention to him. The riding-
horses in Astley's amphitheatre 2 (no new public amusement, for
Homer alludes to it) he went to see; and on the fireworks of
Toree he wrote a Latin poem 3.
The study of humanity, as was injuriously said of the great
Bentley, had not made him inhuman4. He never wantonly
brandished his formidable weapon5. He meant to keep his
enemies off. He did not mean, as in the advice of Radcliffe to
Mead, to ' bully the world, lest the world should bully him 6.' He
seemed to be a man of great clemency to all subordinate beings.
1 Where a camp was formed in
1778 during the dread of a French
and Spanish invasion. Life, iii.
360.
2 ' Of Whitefield he said, "White-
field never drew as much attention
as a mountebank does ; he did not
draw attention by doing better than
others, but by doing what was
strange. W7ere Astley to preach a
sermon standing upon his head on
a horse's back, he would collect a
multitude to hear him ; but no wise
man would say he had made a better
sermon for that." ' Ib. iii. 409.
3 Ante, ii. 321. This poem is not
included in Johnson's Works.
4 ' Bentley having spoken thus,
Scaliger bestowing him a sour look : —
" Miscreant prater," said he, ". . .
thy learning makes thee more bar
barous, thy study of humanity more
inhuman." ' The Battle of the Books.
Swift's Works, ed. 1803, iii. 230.
There is a play on words here, for
humanity in one of its senses meant
' philology ; grammatical studies.'
5 ' I was (wrote Mickle) upwards
of twelve years acquainted with Dr.
Johnson, was frequently in his com
pany, always talked with ease to him,
and can truly say, that I never re
ceived from him one rough word.'
Life, iv. 250.
1 An eminent critic,' no doubt Ma-
lone, said : — * I have been often in
his company, and never once heard
him say a severe thing to any one.
When he did say a severe thing, it
was generally extorted by ignorance
pretending to knowledge, or by ex
treme vanity or affectation.' Jb. iv.
341. ' He never attacked the un
assuming, nor meant to terrify the
diffident.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary,
ii- 343-
6 < Dr. Radcliffe told Dr. Mead,
" Mead, I love you, and now I will
tell you a sure secret to make your
fortune ; use all mankind ill." As
for this maxim he was right. The
generality are bullies, and if you do
not bully them, they will bully you.
Yet nobody ever practised this rule
less than Dr. Mead, who, as I have
been informed by great physicians,
got as much again by his practice as
Dr. Radcliffe did.' J. Richardson's
Richardsoniana, quoted in Gentle
man's Magazine, 1776, p. 373.
He
378 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
He said, ' he would not sit at table, where a lobster that had
been roasted alive was one of the dishes V His charities were
many ; only not so extensive as his pity, for that was universal.
An evening club, for three nights in every week, was contrived to
amuse him, in Essex Street, founded, according to his own words,
* in frequency and parsimony 2 ; ' to which he gave a set of rules,
as Ben Jonson did his leges convivales at the Devil Tavern3 —
Johnson asked one of his executors, a few days before his death
(which, according to his will, he expected every day4) 'where
do you intend to bury me ? ' He answered, ' in Westminster-
abbey.' ' Then/ continued he, { place a stone over my grave
(probably to notify the spot) that my remains may not be
disturbed V Who will come forth with an inscription for him in
the Poets' corner 6 ? Who should have thought that Garrick and
Johnson would have their last sleep together 7 ? It were to be
wished he could have written his own epitaph with propriety.
None of the lapidary inscriptions by Dr. Freind 8 have more merit
1 For his kindness to his cat
Hodge see Life, iv. 197, and for the
advice he gave to Boswell about old
horsts unfit for work, ib. iv. 250.
2 ' We meet thrice a week, and he
who misses forfeits two-pence.' Ib.
iv. 254. In the Rules the forfeit is
three-pence.
3 Ben Jonson wrote Leges Con-
vivales that were ' engraven in marble
over the chimney in the Apollo of
the Old Devil Tavern, Temple Bar ;
that being his Club Room.' Jon-
son's Works, ed. 1756, vii. 291.
4 'I, SAMUEL JOHNSON, being in
full possession of my faculties, but
fearing this night may put an end to
my life, do ordain this my last Will
and Testament.' Life, iv. 402.
5 Ante, ii. 133 ; Life, iv. 419.
For his care that his parents' grave
should be protected by ' a stone
deep, massy, and hard' see ib. iv. 393.
6 His monument with an inscrip
tion by Parr was placed in St. Paul's.
Ib. iv. 423.
7 'Within a few feet of Johnson
lies (by one of those singular coin
cidences in which the Abbeyabounds)
his deadly enemy, James Macpher-
son.' Stanley's Westminster Abbey,
p. 298.
8 Warburton in a note on
' Sepulchral Lies, our holy walls
to grace,'
(Dundad, i. 43),
says: — 'This is a just satire on the
flatteries and falsehoods admitted to
be inscribed on the walls of churches
in epitaphs ; which occasioned the
following epigram : —
" Freind ! in your epitaphs I'm
griev'd
So very much is said :
One half will never be believ'd,
The other never read."'
1 The epigram here inserted (adds
Warton) alludes to the too long, and
sometimes fulsome epitaphs written
by Dr. Freind in pure Latinity, indeed,
but full of antitheses.' Warton's
Pope's Works, ed. 1822, v. 84.
than
by Thomas Tyers. 379
than what Johnson wrote on Thrale T, on Goldsmith 2, and Mrs.
Salusbury 3. By the way, one of these was criticised, by some
men of learning and taste, from the table of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
and conveyed to him in a round robin 4. Maty, in his Review 5,
praises his Latin epitaphs very highly. This son of study and
of indigence died worth above seventeen hundred pounds6:
Milton died worth fifteen hundred7. His legacy to his black
servant, Frank, is noble and exemplary8. Milton left in his
hand-writing the titles of some future subjects for his pen9:
so did Johnson I0.
Johnson died by a quiet and silent expiration, to use his
own words on Milton : and his funeral was splendidly and
numerously attended ". The friends of the Doctor were happy
on his easy departure, for they apprehended he might have died
hard. At the end of this sketch, it may be hinted (sooner
might have been prepossession) that Johnson told this writer,
for he saw he always had his eye and his ear upon him, that
at some time or other he might be called upon to assist
a posthumous account of him I2.
A hint was given to our author, a few years ago, by this
Rhapsodist, to write his own life, lest somebody should write it
for him. He has reason to believe, he has left a manuscript
biography behind him l3. His executors, all honourable men, will
1 Ante, i. 238 ; Life, iv. 85, n. I. 9 Johnson's Works, vii. 90.
2 Life, iii. 82. 10 Life, iv. 381, n. I.
3 Ante, i. 236 ; Life, ii. 263. " These words also are taken from
4 Life, iii. 83. Round robin is not Johnson's account of Milton. Works,
in Johnson's Dictionary. vii. 112. Johnson's funeral however
5 The Neiv Review by Henry was not ' splendidly' attended in the
Maty, April, 1784. Ante, i. 237. ordinary use of the word— not as
6 He left more than .£2,000. The Garrick's was, or Reynolds's, or
bequest to Frank Barber Hawkins Burke's. There was not a single
estimated at a sum little short of nobleman present. Life, iv. 419;
^1,500. The proceeds of his house Letters, ii. 434 ; ante, ii. 136.
at Lichfield, which sold for ^235, 12 Life, i. 26, n. I ; ante, i. 165.
were divided among his relations. l3 Boswell, speaking of the papers
He left besides in legacies ,£300 in which Johnson burnt a few days
money, and £500 in the three per before his death, says : — ' Two very
cents., worth about ,£280. valuable articles, I am sure, we have
7 Johnson's Works, vii. 114. lost, which were two quarto volumes,
8 Ante, ii. 126. containing a full, fair, and most par-
sit
380 A Biographical Sketch of Dr. Johnson
sit in judgment upon his papers x. Thuanus, Buchanan, Huetius,
and others, have been their own historians.
The memory of some people, says Mably 2 very lately, * is
their understanding V This may be thought, by some readers,
to be the case in point. Whatever anecdotes were furnished by
memory, this pen did not choose to part with to any compiler.
His little bit of gold he has worked into as much gold-leaf
as he could. T. T.
[The following anecdote, with some others, was given by
Tyers in the Gentleman 's Magazine y 1785,. p. 85, The rest,
so far as they were of any value, I have incorporated in my
notes.]
Dr. Johnson had a large, but not a splendid library4, near
5,000 volumes. Many authors, not in hostility with him, pre
sented him with their works. But his study did not contain
half his books. He possessed the chair that belonged to the
ticular account of his own life, from
his earliest recollection.' Life, iv. 405.
One of these volumes Hawkins car
ried off, but was forced to bring
back. Ante, i. 127 ; ii. 129.
1 His executors were Hawkins,
Reynolds, and William Scott (Lord
Stowell). Life> iv. 402, n. 2.
2 Prescott wrote in 1841 : — ' Have
read for the tenth time Mably sur
V Etude de VHistoire, full of admirable
reflections and hints. Pity that his
love of the ancients made him high
gravel-blind to the merits of the
moderns.' Ticknor's Life of Prescott >
Boston, 1864, p. 91, n. 6.
3 Tyers probably did not know
that he had been ' described by
Johnson in The Idler, No. 48, under
the name of Tom Restless; "a cir
cumstance," says Mr. Nichols,
" pointed out to me by Dr. Johnson
himself.'" Lit. Anec. viii. 81. 'When
Tom Restless rises he goes into a
coffee-house, where he creeps so
near to men whom he takes to be
reasoners, as to hear their discourse,
and endeavours to remember some
thing which, when it has been strained
through Tom's head, is so near to
nothing, that what it once was can
not be discovered. This he carries
round from friend to friend through
a circle of visits, till, hearing what
each says upon the question, he be
comes able at dinner to say a little
himself; and as every great genius
relaxes himself among his inferiors,
meets with some who wonder how
so young a man can talk so wisely.'
4 ' His library, though by no means
handsome in its appearance, was
sold by Mr. Christie for ^247 9.$-.
Life, iv. 402, n. 2. See also ib. i.
188, n. 3, 435-
My friend, Mr. Edward J. Leveson,
the Scribe of the Johnson Club, re
printed a facsimile of the sale cata
logue of Dr. Johnson's Library for
the meeting of the Johnson Club at
Oxford, June II, 1892.
Ciceronian
by Thomas Tyers. 381
Ciceronian Dr. King of Oxford, which was given him by his
friend Vansittart x. It answers the purposes of reading and
writing, by night or by day ; and is as valuable in all respects
as the chair of Ariosto, as delineated in the preface to Hoole's
liberal translation of that poet. Since the rounding of this
period intelligence is brought that this literary chair is purchased
by Mr. Hoole. Relicks are venerable things, and are only not
to be worshipped. On the reading-chair of Mr. Speaker Onslow
a part of this historical sketch was written 2.
1 Johnson wrote from Oxford in 348. For Dr. King see ib. i. 279,
1759 : — ' I have proposed to Van- n. 5.
sittart climbing over the wall ; but 2 Speaker Onslow's copy of John-
he has refused me. And I have son's Dictionary is the one I have
clapped my hands till they are sore used in writing my notes on Boswell
at Dr. King's speech.' Life, i. and Johnson.
NARRATIVE
OF THE LAST WEEK OF JOHNSON'S LIFE
BY THE
RIGHT HON. WILLIAM WINDHAM
[FROM the Diary of the Right Hon. William Windham, i vol.
8vo. 1866, p. 28.
For other extracts from this Diary see Letters, ii. 439.]
TUESDAY, December 7th. Ten minutes past two, P.M.
After waiting some short time in the adjoining room, I was
admitted to Dr. Johnson z in his bedchamber, where, after placing
me next him on the chair, he sitting in his usual place on the
east side of the room (and I on his right hand), he put into my
hands two small volumes (an edition of the New Testament), as he
afterwards told me, saying, 'Extremum hoc munus morientis habeto?
He then proceeded to observe that I was entering upon a life
which would lead me deeply into all the business of the world 2 ;
1 Life, iv. 407,411, 415. lo extreme consequences.' Mackin-
2 In the Coalition Ministry of 1783 tosh's Life, ii. 59. He eagerly op-
Windham had been Chief Secretary posed the establishment of parochial
for Ireland. Ib. iv. 200. schools, the abolition of the slave
' Windham was a man of a very trade, and the bills for preventing
high order, spoiled by faults ap- wanton cruelty to animals, and for
parently small. For the sake of a the abolition of capital punishment
new subtlety or a forcible phrase he for petty thefts. Romilly's Life, ii.
was content to utter what loaded 216,288. ' I remember with delight,'
him with permanent unpopularity ; wrote Parr, 'those happier days when
his logical propensity led him always his refinements, instead of being
that
Extracts from Windham's Diary. 383
that he did not condemn civil employment, but that it was
a state of great danger ; and that he had therefore one piece of
advice earnestly to impress upon me — that I would set apart every
seventh day for the care of my soul ; that one day, the seventh,
should be employed in repenting what was amiss in the six pre
ceding, and fortifying my virtue for the six to come ; that such
a portion of time was surely little enough for the meditation of
eternity. He then told me that he had a request to make to me ;
namely, that I would allow his servant Frank to look up to me
as his friend, adviser, and protector, in all difficulties which his
own weakness and imprudence, or the force or fraud of others,
might bring him into. He said that he had left him what he
considered an ample provision, viz. yc/. per annum x ; but that
even that sum might not place him above the want of a protector,
and to me, therefore, he recommended him as to one who had
will, and power, and activity to protect him. Having obtained
my assent to this, he proposed that Frank should be called in ;
and desiring me to take him by the hand in token of the promise,
repeated before him the recommendation he had just made of
him, and the promise I had given to attend to it. I then took
occasion to say how much I felt — what I had long foreseen that
I should feel, regret at having spent so little of my life in his
company2. I stated this as an instance where resolutions are
deferred till the occasions are past. For some time past I had
determined that such an occasion of self-reproach should not
subsist, and had built upon the hope of passing in his society the
chief part of my time, at the moment when it was to be appre
hended we were about to lose him for ever.. I had no difficulty
in speaking to him thus of my apprehensions ; I could not help,
on the other hand, entertaining hopes ; but with these I did not
like to trouble him, lest he should conceive that I thought it
necessary to flatter him. He answered hastily, that he was sure
dangerous in practice, were in theory days earlier. Ante, ii. 126, 132.
only amusing.' Field's Life of Parr, * Windham, who had lately paid
i. 319. him a short visit at Ashbourne, re-
1 His will is dated Dec. 8, the day corded the day he left, ' Regretted,
after he spoke to Windham ; but he upon reflection, that I had not staid
had made 'a temporary one' eleven another day.' Letters, ii. 441.
I would
384 Extracts from Windham's Diary.
I would not ; and proceeded to make a compliment to the
manliness of my mind, which, whether deserved or not, ought
to be remembered, that it may be deserved.
I then stated, that among other neglects was the omission of
introducing, of all others, the most important [subjects], the con
sequence of which particularly filled my mind at that moment,
and on which I had often been desirous to know his opinions.
The subjects I meant were, I said, ' natural and revealed religion.1
The wish thus generally stated, was in part gratified on the
instant. For revealed religion, he said, there was such historical
evidence, as, upon any subject not religious, would have left no
doubt. Had the facts recorded in the New Testament been
mere civil occurrences, no one would have called in question the
testimony by which they are established ; but the importance an
nexed to them, amounting to nothing less than the salvation of
mankind, raised a cloud in our minds, and created doubts unknown
upon any other subject. Of proofs to be derived from history,
one of the most cogent, he seemed to think, was the opinion so
well authenticated, and so long entertained, of a Deliverer that
was to appear about that time. Among the typical representa
tions, the sacrifice of the Paschal Lamb, in which no bone was to
be broken, had early struck his mind. For the immediate life
and miracles of Christ, such attestation as that of the apostles,
who all, except St. John, confirmed their testimony with their
blood ; such belief as their witness procured from a people best
furnished with the means of judging, and least disposed to judge
favourably ; such an extension afterwards of that belief over all
the nations of the earth, though originating from a nation of all
others most despised, would leave no doubt that the things
witnessed were true, and were of a nature more than human.
With respect to evidence, Dr. Johnson observed that we had not
such evidence that Caesar died in the Capitol, as that Christ
died in the manner related x.
nth. First day of skating; ice fine. Find I have lost nothing
since last year.
Between nine and ten went to Sir Joshua, whom I took up by
1 Life, i. 428, 444, 454 ; v. 340 ; ante, ii. 157.
the
Extracts from Windham's Diary. 385
the way, to see Dr. Johnson. Strachan J and Langton there. No
hopes ; though a great discharge had taken place from the legs.
1 2th. Came down about ten; read reviews, wrote to Mrs.
Siddons, and then went to the ice ; came home only in time to
dress and go to my mother's to dinner. About half past seven
went to Dr. Johnson's, where I stayed, chiefly in the outer room,
till past eleven. Strachan there during the whole time ; during
part Mr. Hoole ; and latterly Mr. Cruikshank and the apothecary.
I only went in twice, for a few minutes each time : the first time
I hinted only what they had before been urging ; namely, that
he would be prevailed upon to take some sustenance, and desisted
upon his exclaiming. ' 'Tis all very childish; let us hear no
more of it V The second time I came in, in consequence of
a consultation with Mr. Cruikshank and the apothecary, and
addressed him formally. After premising that I considered what
I was going to say as a matter of duty ; I said that I hoped he
would not suspect me of the weakness of importuning him to
take nourishment for the purpose of prolonging his life for a few
hours or days. I then stated what the reason was, that it was
to secure that which I was persuaded he was most anxious
about ; namely, that he might preserve his faculties entire to
the last moment. Before I had quite stated my meaning, he
interrupted me by saying, that he had refused no sustenance but
inebriating sustenance; and proceeded to give instances where,
in compliance with the wishes of his physician, he had taken
even a small quantity of wine. I readily assented to any objec
tions he might have to nourishment of that kind, and observing
that milk was the only nourishment I intended, flattered myself
that I had succeeded in my endeavours, when he recurred to his
general refusal, and ' begged that there might be an end of it/
I then said, that I hoped he would forgive my earnestness — or
something to that effect, when he replied eagerly, that from me
nothing would be necessary by way of apology ; adding, with
great fervour, in words which I shall (I hope) never forget, ' God
bless you, my dear Windham, through Jesus Christ ;' and con
cluding with a wish 'that we might [share] in some humble
portion of that happiness which God might finally vouchsafe to
1 Rev. George Strahan. 2 Ante^ ii. 159.
VOL. II. C c repentant
386 Extracts from Windham's Diary.
repentant sinners.' These were the last words I ever heard him
speak. I hurried out of the room with tears in my eyes, and
more affected than I had been on any former occasion.
December 13. — In the morning meant to have met Mr. Cruik-
shank in Bolt Court ; but while I was deliberating about going,
was sent for by Mr. Burke. Went to Bolt Court about half-past
three. Found Dr. Johnson had been almost constantly asleep
since nine in the morning, and heard from Mr. Des Moulins an
account of what had passed in the night. He had compelled
Frank to give him a lancet, and had besides concealed in the
bed a pair of scissors, and with one or the other of these had
scarified himself in three places, two in the leg, &c. On
Mr. Des Moulins making a difficulty of giving him the lancet,
he said, ' Don't you, if you have any scruples ; but I will compel
Frank : ' and on Mr. Des Moulins attempting afterwards to
prevent Frank from giving it to him, and at last to restrain his
hands, he grew very outrageous, so as to call Frank scoundrel,
and to threaten Mr. Des Moulins that he would stab him. He
then made the three incisions above mentioned, of which one in
the leg, &c. were not unskilfully made ; but the other in the leg
was a deep and ugly wound from which, with the others, they
suppose him to have lost nearly eight ounces of blood x. Upon
Dr. Heberden expressing his fears about the scarification,
Dr. Johnson told him he was timidorum timidissimus2.
A few days before his death, talking with Dr. Brocklesby, he
said, ' Now will you ascribe my death to my having taken eight
grains of squills, when you recommended only three ; Dr. Heberden,
to my having opened my left foot, when nature was pointing out
the discharge in the right V The conversation was introduced
by his quoting some lines to the same purpose, from Swift's
verses on his own death 4.
1 Ante, ii. 134. He might have liv'd these twenty
2 Ib. i. 199. 3 Ib. ii. 7. years ;
4 'The doctors, tender of their fame, For, when we open'd him, we found
Wisely on me lay all the blarne. That all his vital parts were sound." '
" We must confess his case was nice ; On the Death of Dr. Swiff. Swift's
But he would never take advice. Works, ed. 1803, xi. 245.
Had he been rul'd, for aught appears, Johnson in his last years often
It
Extracts from Windham's Diary. 387
It was within the same period (if I understood Dr. Brocklesby
rightly) that he enjoined him, as an honest man and a physician,
to inform him how long he thought he had to live. Dr. Brocklesby
inquired, in return, whether he had firmness to learn the answer.
Upon his replying that he had, and Dr. B. limiting the term to
a few weeks, he said, 'that he then would trouble himself no
more with medicine or medical advice:' and to this resolution
he pretty much adhered x.
In a conversation about what was practicable in medicine or
surgery, he quoted, to the surprise of his physicians, the opinion
of Marchetti for an operation (I think) of extracting part of
the kidney. He recommended for an account of China, Sir John
Mandeville's Travels. Halliday's Notes on Juvenal he thought
so highly of as to have employed himself for some time in
translating them into Latin 2.
He insisted on the doctrine of an expiatory sacrifice as the
condition without which there was no Christianity; and urged in
support the belief entertained in all ages, and by all nations,
barbarous as well as polite. He recommended to Dr. Brocklesby,
also, Clarke's Sermons, and repeated to him the passage which
he had spoken of to me3.
While airing one day with Dr. B., in passing and returning by
St. Pancras' church, he fell into prayer, and mentioned, upon
Dr. B.'s inquiring why the Catholics chose that for their burying
place, that some Catholics, in Queen Elizabeth's time, had been
burnt there4. Upon Dr. B.'s asking him whether he did not
feel the warmth of the sun, he quoted from Juvenal —
quoted from this poem. Letters, ii. 4 ' Pancras, a small hamlet in
147, 192, 302, 404, 421. Middlesex, on the north-west side
1 Life, iv. 415; ante, ii. 122, 149, of London, in the road to Kentish
369. town. The churchyard is a general
3 Barten Holy day, or Holiday, pub- burying-place for persons of the
lished ini6i6averse translation of Romish religion.' Dodsley's London,
Persius. 'The posthumous edition ed. 1761, v. 105. General Paoli was
of 1673 was accompanied by a new buried there. No Catholics were
translation of Juvenal, and contains burnt by Elizabeth. ' There was
voluminous notes.' Diet. Nat. Biog. nothing in the creeds of the Puritans
xxvii. 214. or of the Catholics which, according
3 Ante, ii. 205 ; Lifet iv. 414, 416 ; to law, could subject them to the
v. 88. pains of heresy ; but the Anabaptists
C c 2 ' Praeterea
388 Extracts from Windham's Diary.
1 Praeterea minimus gelido jam in corpore sanguis
Febre calet sola1.'
45 minutes past 10 P.M. — While I was writing the adjoining
articles I received the fatal account, so long dreaded, that
Dr. Johnson was no more !
May those prayers which he incessantly poured from a heart
fraught with the deepest devotion, find that acceptance with
Him to whom they were addressed, which piety, so humble and
so fervent, may seem to promise !
Dr. Brocklesby made him an offer of TOO/, a year if he should
determine to go abroad ; he pressed his hands and said, ' God
bless you through Jesus Christ, but I will take no money but
from my sovereign 2.' This, if I mistake not, was told the King
through West 3. That Johnson wanted much assistance, and that
the Chancellor meant to apply for it, His Majesty was told
through the same channel.
On dissection of the body, vesicles of wind were found on the
lungs (which Dr. Heberden said he had never seen, and of which
Cruikshank professed to have seen only two instances), one of
the kidneys quite gone, a gall stone in the bladder, I think ;
no water in the chest, and little in the abdomen, no more than
might have found its way thither after death.
2oth. — A memorable day — the day which saw deposited in
Westminster Abbey the remains of Johnson. After our return
from the Abbey I spent some time with Burke on the subject
of his negociation with the Chancellor. We dined at Sir Joshua
Reynolds', viz. Burke and R. Burke, Metcalf, Colman, Hoole,
Scott, Burney and Brocklesby.
were still doomed to suffer at the 'Add that a fever only warms
stake under Elizabeth.' Lingard's his veins,
Hist, of England, ed. 1823, viii. 183. And thaws the little blood that
Three Anabaptists were burnt, and yet remains.' GIFFORD.
one, Francis Kett, ' who had uttered * Life, iv. 338; ante, i. 441-3 ;
blasphemies against the Divinity of ii. 3^9-
Christ.' 3 Most likely Benjamin West, the
1 Satires, x. 217:— painter.
MINOR ANECDOTES OF
DR. JOHNSON
BY ROBERT BARCLAY.
[FROM Croker's Boswell, x. 122. For Robert Barclay, who
with John Perkins bought Thrale's Brewery, see Life> iv. 118,
n. i ; Letters, ii. 216 n.
He was the great-grandson of the author of the Apology. He
must not be confused with his cousin and contemporary Robert
Barclay, the banker of Lombard Street.]
Mr. Barclay, from his connexion with Mr. Thrale, had several
opportunities of meeting and conversing with Dr. Johnson. On
his becoming a partner in the brewery, Johnson advised him
not to allow his commercial pursuits to divert his attention
from his studies. ( A mere literary man/ said the Doctor, ' is
a dull man ; a man who is solely a man of business is a selfish
man ; but when literature and commerce are united, they make
a respectable man V
Mr. Barclay had never observed any rudeness or violence on
the part of Johnson. He has seen Boswell lay down his knife
and fork, and take out his tablets, in order to register a good
anecdote 2. When Johnson proceeded to the dining-room, one
of Mr. Thrale's servants handed him a wig of a smarter de
scription than the one he wore in the morning ; the exchange
1 ' Domi inter mille mercaturae Thrale. Ante, i. 238 ; ii. 13, 309.
negotia literarum elegantiam minime For respectable see Life, iii. 241, n. 2.
neglexit.' Johnson's epitaph on Mr. 2 Ante, i. 175.
took
390 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
took place in the hall, or passage x. Johnson, like many other
men, was always in much better humour after dinner than
before.
Mr. Barclay saw Johnson ten days before he died, when the
latter observed, ' That they should never meet more. Have
you any objection to receive an old man's blessing?' Mr.
Barclay knelt down, and Johnson gave him his blessing with
great fervency.
BY H. D. BEST.
[From Personal and Literary Memorials, i vol., 8vo. London,
1829, pp. 11,62, 63,65.]
Mrs. Digby told me that when she lived in London with her
sister Mrs. Brooke2, they were every now and then honoured
by the visits of Dr. Johnson. He called on them one day
soon after the publication of his immortal dictionary. The two
ladies paid him due compliments on the occasion. Amongst
other topics of praise they very much commended the omission
of all naughty words. ' What, my dears ! then you have been
looking for them?' said the moralist. The ladies, confused
at being thus caught, dropped the subject of the dictionary.
In early youth I knew Bennet Langton, of that ilk, as the
Scotch say. With great personal claims to the respect of the
public, he is known to that public chiefly as a friend of Johnson.
He was a very tall, meagre, long-visaged man, much resembling,
according to Richard Paget, a stork standing on one leg, near
the shore, in Raphael's cartoon of the miraculous draught of
fishes. His manners were in the highest degree polished; his
conversation mild, equable, and always pleasing. He had the
uncommon faculty of being a good reader3. I formed an
1 Ante, i. 307. more, let's go into the slaughter-
2 Ante, i. 322 ; ii. 192. house again, Lanky. But I am afraid
3 He read Dodsley's Cleone to there is more blood than brains." '
Johnson, who ' at the end of an Life, iv. 20.
act said, " Come, let's have some
intimacy
By Sir Brooke Boothby. 391
intimacy with his son, and went to pay him a visit at JLangton.
After breakfast we walked to the top of a very steep hill behind
the house. When we arrived at the summit, Mr. Langton said,
' Poor, dear Dr. Johnson, when he came to this spot, turned
to look down the hill, and said he was determined "to take
a roll down V When we understood what he meant to do,
we endeavoured to dissuade him ; but he was resolute, saying,
he had not had a roll for a long time ; and taking out of his
lesser pockets whatever might be in them — keys, pencil, purse,
or pen-knife, and laying himself parallel with the edge of the
hill, he actually descended, turning himself over and over till
he came to the bottom.'
The story was told with such gravity, and with an air of
such affectionate remembrance of a departed friend, that it
was impossible to suppose this extraordinary freak of the
great lexicographer to have been a fiction or invention of
Mr. Langton.
BY SIR BROOKE BOOTHBY.
[The following anecdotes were communicated to Dr. Anderson
by Sir Brooke Boothby, Bart., ' who had frequent opportunities
of enjoying the company of Johnson at Lichfield and Ashbourne.'
Anderson's Life of Johnson, ed. 1815, p. 332.
Sir Brooke Boothby was the brother of Miss Hill Boothby.
Ante, i. 18 ; Life, i. 83 ; Letters, i. 45.]
Johnson spoke as he wrote. He would take up a topic, and
utter upon it a number of the Rambler 2. On a question, one
day, at Miss Porter's, concerning the authority of a newspaper
for some fact, he related, that a lady of his acquaintance im
plicitly believed every thing she read in the papers ; and that,
by way of curing her credulity, he fabricated a story of a battle
between the Russians and Turks, then at war ; and * that it
1 Johnson visited Langton in 1764. que ceux qui dcrivent comme ils
Life, i. 476 ; ante, i. 286, 291. parlent, quoiqu'ils parlent tres-bien,
2 Ante, i. 348 ; ii. 92. e"crivent mal.' Correspondance de
*M. de Buffon remarque tres-bien Grimm, ed. 1814, i. 33.
might
392 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
might,' he said, 'bear internal evidence of its futility, I laid
the scene in an island at the conflux of the Boristhenes and
the Danube ; rivers which run at the distance of a hundred
leagues from each other. The lady, however, believed the
story, and never forgave the deception; the consequence of
which was, that I lost an agreeable companion, and she was
deprived of an innocent amusement *.' And he added, as an
extraordinary circumstance, that the Russian ambassador sent
in great haste to the printer, to know from whence he had
received the intelligence. Another time, at Dr. Taylor's, a few
days after the death of the wife of the Rev. Mr. Kennedy, of
Bradley2, a woman of extraordinary sense, he described the
eccentricities of the man and the woman, with a nicety of
discrimination, and a force of language, equal to the best of
his periodical essays. Now, with such powers, and the full
confidence he felt in himself before any audience, he must have
made an able and impressive speaker in Parliament 3.
BY THE REV. W. COLE.
[From Cole's Collection in the British Museum. Croker's
Boswell, x. 123.]
I was told by Mr. Farmer, the present Master of Emanuel
College4, that he being in London last year [1774] with Mr.
Arnold, tutor in St. John's College, was desired to introduce
1 The lady was Mrs. Salusbury, The following anecdote is recorded
Mrs. Thrale's mother. She was re- of one branch of the Meynells in
conciled to Johnson. Ante, i. 235. Button's History of Derby, ed. 1867,
2 A village in Derbyshire, where p. 267. ' While the Meynell family
Johnson visited the Meynells. Life, were spending their sober evening
i. 82 ; Letters, i. 45, n. 6. ' In 1762 by the glow of their own fire, a coach
he wrote for the Rev. Dr. John and six was heard rolling up to the
Kennedy, the Rector of Bradley, in door. " Bring candles," says the
a strain of very courtly elegance a lady of the mansion, with some
dedication to the King.' Life, i. emotion, while she stept forward to
366. It is probably the same Dr. receive the guests ; but instantly re-
Kennedy who wrote a foolish tragedy turning, " Light up a rush," said she,
which had been shown to Mr. Fitz- "it is only my cousin Curzon." '
herbert, and who married Miss Mey- 3 Ante, ii. 362 n.
nell. Ib. iii. 238. 4 Life, iii. 38.
the
From William Cooke's Life of Samuel Foote. 393
the latter, who had been bred a Whig, to the acquaintance of
the very learned and sensible Dr. Samuel Johnson. They had
not been long together, before (the conversation leading to it)
the Doctor, addressing himself to Mr. Arnold, said, ' Sir, you
are a young man, but I have seen a great deal of the world,
and take it upon my word and experience, that where you
see a Whig you see a rascal V Mr. Farmer said he was startled,
and rather uneasy that the Doctor had expressed himself so
bluntly, and was apprehensive that Mr. Arnold might be shocked
and take it ill. But they laughed it off, and were very good
company.
FROM WILLIAM COOKE'S LIFE OF
SAMUEL FOOTE.
Dr. Johnson being asked by a lady why he so constantly
gave money to beggars, replied with great feeling, * Madam, to
enable them to beg on2.' Vol. ii. p. no.
Dr. Johnson being asked by a lady what love was, replied,
* It was the wisdom of a fool and the folly of the wise.' Vol. ii.
P. 154.
In the recital of prayers and religious poems Dr. Johnson
was awfully impressive3. One night at the Club4, a person
quoting the nineteenth psalm, the Doctor caught fire ; and
instantly taking off his hat began with great solemnity : —
'The spacious firmament on high,'
and went through that beautiful hymn5. Those who were
1 For rascal see ib. iii. I, and for 4 Most likely the Essex Head
abuse of Whigs and Whiggism, vi. Club, of which Cooke was a member.
323. The autumn of this same year 5 Thackeray in his English Hu-
(1774), just before the general elec- mourists (ed. 1858, p. 109) says of
tion, Johnson said to Burke, ( I wish this hymn of Addison's : — ' Listen to
you all the success which ought to him ; from your childhood you have
be wished you, which can possibly known the verses : but who can hear
be wished you indeed— by an honest their sacred music without love and
man.9 Ante, i. 309. awe ? ... It seems to me that these
2 Ante^ i. 204. verses shine like the stars. They
3 Ib. ii. 266. shine out of a great deep calm.'
acquainted
394 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
acquainted with the Doctor knew how harsh his features in
general were ; but, upon this occasion, to use the language
of Scripture, — 'his face was almost as if it had been the face
of an angel V
Soon after Garrick's purchase at Hampton Court 2 he was
showing Dr. Johnson the grounds, the house, Shakespeare's
temple &c. ; and concluded by asking him, ' Well, Doctor, how
do you like all this?1 'Why, it is pleasant enough,' growled
the Doctor, ' for the present ; but all these things, David, make
death very terrible.'
At the same time on Garrick's showing him a magnificent
library, full of books in most elegant bindings, the Doctor began
running over the volumes in his usual coarse and negligent
manner ; which was by opening the book so wide as almost
to break the back of it, and then flung them down one by one
on the floor with contempt 3. * Zounds ! •' said Garrick, who was
in torture all this time, ' why, what are you about there ? you'll
spoil all my books/ ' No, Sir/ cried Johnson, ' I have done
nothing but treat a pack of silly plays in fops' dresses just as
they deserve ; but I see no books!
FROM THE EUROPEAN MAGAZINE*.
Boswell was a man of excellent natural parts, on which he
had engrafted a great deal of general knowledge5. His talents
as a man of company were much heightened by his extreme
1 Acts, vi. 15. inspires was foreign to his heart/
2 'Here he received the visits of Murphy's Life of Garrick, p. 345.
the nobility, of the ablest scholars, 3 Life, ii. 192.
and the men of genius in every branch 4 European Magazine, 1798, p.
of literature. He lived in an elegant 376.
style, and to the luxuries of the table 5 When he was twenty-five years
added his wit and the polished old Johnson said to him :—' Your
manner of one who had enjoyed the general mass of knowledge of books
best company. His behaviour was and men renders you very capable to
modest and unassuming ; he gave make, yourself master of any science,
himself no superior airs, and the or fit yourself for any profession.'
pride which a large fortune often Life, ii. 9.
cheerfulness
From the 'European Magazine' 395
cheerfulness and good nature. Mr. Burke said of him1, that he
had no merit in possessing that agreeable faculty, and that
a man might as well assume to himself merit in possessing
an excellent constitution z. Mr. Boswell professed the Scotch
and the English law ; but had never taken very great pains
on the subject. His father, Lord Auchinleck, told him one
day, that it would cost him more trouble to hide his ignorance
in these professions, than to show his knowledge. This Mr. Bos-
well owned he had found to be true 2. Society was his idol ;
to that he sacrificed every thing: his eye glistened, and his
countenance brightened up, when he saw the human face
divine 3 ; and that person must have been very fastidious indeed,
who did not return him the same compliment when he came
into a room. Of his Life of Johnson, who can say too much,
or praise it too highly ? What is Plutarch's biography to his ?
so minute, so appropriate, so dramatic4.
A gentleman of Lichfield meeting the Doctor returning from
a walk, inquired how far he had been? The Doctor replied,
he had gone round Mr. Levet's field5 (the place where the
1 Johnson wrote to Boswell on ignorance of English law, and of ' the
July 3, 1778: — ' If general approba- delusion of Westminster Hall, of
tion will add anything to your enjoy- brilliant reputation and splendid
ment, I can tell you that I have fortune,' which, he continues, 'still
heard you mentioned as a man whom weighs upon my imagination,' see id.
everybody likes' Life, iii. 362. An- iii. 179 n.
other time he described him as c the 3 Paradise Lost, Bk. iii. 1. 44.
best travelling companion in the * ' Boswell is the first of bio-
world.' Ib. iii. 294. He wrote of graphers. He has no second. He
him to Mrs. Thrale : ' I shall cele- has distanced all his competitors so
brate his good- humour and per- decidedly that it is not worth while to
petual cheerfulness.' Letters, \. 291. place them. Eclipse is first, and the
It was for him that he invented the rest nowhere.' Macaulay's Essays,
word clubable. * Boswell (said he) ed. 1843, i. 374.
is a very clubable man.' Life, iv. * Of all the men distinguished in
254 n. this or any other age Dr. Johnson
3 To his friend Temple he wrote : — has left upon posterity the strongest
' I have a kind of impotency of study.' and most vivid impression, so far as
Letters of Boswell, p. 181. Never- person, manners, disposition and
theless, in the University which he conversation are concerned.' Scott's
and Johnson imagined he was 'to Works, ed. 1834,111.260.
teach Civil and Scotch law.' Life, 5 For John Levett of Lichfield see
v. 108. For his confession of his Life, i. 160 ; Letters, i. 14.
scholars
396 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
scholars play) in search of a rail that he used to jump over when
a boy, ' and/ says the Doctor in a transport of joy, c I have been
so fortunate as to find it : I stood, said he, ' gazing upon it some
time with a degree of rapture, for it brought to my mind all
my juvenile sports and pastimes, and at length I determined
to try my skill and dexterity ; I laid aside my hat and wig,
pulled off my coat, and leapt over it twice/ Thus the great
Dr. Johnson, only three years before his death, was, without
hat, wig, or coat, jumping over a rail that he had used to fly
over when a school-boy x.
Amongst those who were so intimate with Dr. Johnson as to
have him occasionally an intimate in their families, it is a well
known fact that he would frequently descend from the con
templation of subjects the most profound imaginable to the
most childish playfulness. It was no uncommon thing to see
him hop, step, and jump 2 ; he would often seat himself on the
back of his chair, and more than once has been known to
propose a race on some grassplat adapted to the purpose. He
was very intimate and much attached to Mr. John Payne3,
once a bookseller in Paternoster Row, and afterwards Chief
Accountant of the Bank. Mr. Payne was of a very diminutive
appearance, and once when they were together on a visit with
a friend at some distance from town, Johnson in a gaiety
of humour proposed to run a race with Mr. Payne — the
proposal was accepted ; but, before they had proceeded
more than half of the intended distance, Johnson caught his
little adversary up in his arms, and without any ceremony
placed him upon the arm of a tree which was near, and
then continued running as if he had met with a hard match.
He afterwards returned with much exultation to release his
friend from the no very pleasant situation in which he had
left him4.
1 This is, perhaps, an amplification Addison, The Gitardian, No. 112.
of the story told,/^/, p. 415. In my schoolboy days we always
2 ' I flutter about my room two or said * hop, skip and jump.'
three hours in a morning, and when 3 Ante, i. 388.
my wings are on can go above an hun- 4 For his race with a young lady
dred yards at a hop, step and jump.' see ante, ii. 278.
Doctor
By Richard Green of Lichfield. 397
Doctor, afterwards Dean Maxwell x, sitting in company with
Johnson, they were talking of the violence of parties, and what
unwarrantable and insolent lengths mobs will sometimes run into.
' Why, yes, Sir,' says Johnson, ' they'll do any thing, no matter
how odd, or desperate, to gain their point ; they'll catch hold of
the red-hot end of a poker, sooner than not get possession of it.'
Dr. Johnson, in his tour through North Wales, passed two
days at the seat of Colonel Middleton of Gwynagag2. While
he remained there, the gardener caught a hare amidst some
potatoe plants, and brought it to his master, then engaged in
conversation with the Doctor. An order was given to carry it
to the cook. As soon as Johnson heard this sentence, he begged
to have the animal placed in his arms ; which was no sooner
done, than approaching the window then half open, he restored
the hare to her liberty, shouting after her to accelerate her
speed. 'What have you done?' cried the Colonel; 'why,
Doctor, you have robbed my table of a delicacy, perhaps
deprived us of a dinner.' 'So much the better, Sir,' replied
the humane champion of a condemned hare ; ' for if your table
is to be supplied at the expense of the laws of hospitality, I
envy not the appetite of him who eats it. This, Sir, is not
a hare ferce naturce, but one which had placed itself under your
protection ; and savage indeed must be that man who does not
make his hearth an asylum for the confiding stranger V
BY RICHARD GREEN OF LICHFIELD4.
[Richard Green was an apothecary of Lichfield. Of his
Museum Johnson said to him : — ' Sir, I should as soon have
1 For Dr. Maxwell's Collectanea truly the dinner of a country gentle-
see Life, ii. 1 1 6. man. Myddelton is the only man who,
2 « We came (writes Johnson) to in Wales, has talked to me of litera-
Mr. Myddelton's of Gwaynynog, to ture.' Life, v. 443, 452. They passed
the first place, as my Mistress ob- not two days but eight with him.
served, where we have been welcome. 3 This story is not in Mrs. Piozzi's
. . . The table was well supplied, ex- Anecdotes.
cept that the fruit was bad. It was 4 Croker's Boswell, ix. 248.
thought
398
Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
thought of building a man of war as of collecting such a museum/
Life, ii. 465. There is a view of it in Shaw's History of
Staffordshire, p. 332. See also Letters, i. 161, n. 5.]
Dr. Brocklesby, a few days before the death of Dr. Johnson,
found on the table Dr. Kippis's account of the Disputes of the
Royal Society1. Dr. Johnson inquired of his physician if he
had read it, who answered in the negative. c You have sustained
no loss, Sir. It is poor stuff, indeed, a sad unscholar-like per
formance. I could not have believed that that man would have
written so ill.'
Being desired to call in Dr. Warren 2, he said they might call
1 Dr. Andrew Kippis was the editor
of a new edition of the Biographia
Britannica. ' My friend, Dr. Kippis,'
wrote Boswell, 'has hitherto dis
charged the task with more im
partiality than might have been ex
pected from a Separatist.' Life, iii.
174. In 1784 he published Observa
tions on the late Contests in the Royal
Society. The contests had been about
the Foreign Secretary and the Presi
dent.
2 ' When Dr. Warren, in the usual
style, hoped that he was better, his
answer was, " No, Sir ; you cannot
conceive with what acceleration I
advance towards death.'" Life, iv.
411. See also ib. p. 399 ; ante, ii. 136 n.
Warren was a member of the Literary
Club. In the debate in the House of
Commons on the King's illness on
Jan. 6, 1789, Burke, alluding probably
to the Club, said :— ' He knew Dr.
Warren, he belonged to a society
where the Doctor frequently came,
had always found him an instructive
companion, and had ever heard him
considered as a man of learning,
great integrity and honour.' Parl.
Hist, xxvii. 919. Miss Burney de
scribes a curious scene one night,
where ' the poor Queen in a torrent
of tears prepared herself for seeing
Dr. Warren,' after 'he had quitted
his post of watching ' the King. Mme.
D'Arblay's Diary, iv. 292. ' He is
said to have received in the course of
one day fees to the amount of ninety-
nine guineas, and to have made .£8000
a year ever since the Regency.'
Annual Register, 1797, ii. 36.
Charles Darwin quotes the follow
ing anecdote in his Life of Erasmus
Darwin (ed. 1887, p. 105) :— ' A
gentleman in the last stage of con
sumption came to Dr. Darwin at
Derby, and expressed himself to this
effect : — " I am come from London
to consult you as the greatest phy
sician in the world. ... I know that
my life hangs upon a thread. ... I
trust that you will not deceive me,
but tell me without hesitation your
candid opinion." Dr. Darwin mi
nutely examined him, and said he
was sorry to say there was no hope.
After a pause of a few minutes the
gentleman said, "How long can I
live ? " The answer was, " Perhaps
a fortnight." The gentleman seized
his hand and said, " Thank you,
Doctor ; I thank you ; my mind is
satisfied ; I now know there is no
hope for me." Dr. Darwin then
said, " But as you come from London,
why did you not consult Dr. Warren ?"
in
By T. Green. 399
in any body they pleased ; and Warren was called/ At his
going away, 'You have come in,' said Dr. Johnson, 'at the
eleventh hour; but you shall be paid the same with your
fellow- labourers. Francis, put into Dr. Warren's coach a copy
of the English Poets V
Some years before, some person in a company at Salisbury 2,
of which Dr. Johnson was one, vouched for the company that
there was nobody in it afraid of death. ' Speak for yourself,
Sir,' said Johnson, ' for indeed I am.' ' I did not say of dying,'
replied the other ; ' but of death, meaning its consequences.'
1 And so I mean,' rejoined the Doctor ; ' I am very seriously
afraid of the consequences V
BY T. GREEN.
[From the Diary of a Lover of Literature by T. Green of
Ipswich, 4to. 1810; and since continued in the Gentleman s
Magazine. Croker's Boswell, x. 141.]
Mr. Monney told me he had often met Johnson, and imitated
his manner very happily. Johnson came on a visit to the
"Alas! Doctor, I am Dr. Warren." a physician had common sense when
He died in a week or two afterwards.' he first settled at Bath, he soon lost
According to the Annual Register it all in looking out for bile and giving
Warren ' died of spasms in his in to the medical cant of the place.'
stomach very unexpectedly, at a mo- European Magazine •, 1798, p. 240.
ment when Sir G. Baker and Dr. * The Rev. C. G. Andrews, Would-
Pitcairn were most sanguine in their ham Rectory, Rochester, a great-
hopes of his recovery. His complaint grandson of Dr. Heberden, has the
had been a violent erysipelas in his copy of the Lives that belonged to
head.' This is confirmed by Lord Dr. Heberden, inscribed (not in
Charlemont, who wrote on Aug. 19, Johnson's writing) ' From the author.'
1797: — 'As for Dr. WTarren, death 2 Johnson was twice at Salisbury —
owed him a grudge for the numerous once in 1762, on his way to Devon-
victims rescued from his dart, and at shire (Taylor's Reynolds, i. 214), and
length revenged himself by that fatal once in 1783, sixteen months before
blow on the stomach.' Hist. MSS. his death. Life, iv. 234.
Com., Thirteenth Report, App. viii. 3 Ante, ii. 202.
281. 'Dr. Warren used to say that if 'Apres avoir parle de la faussete
President
400 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
President of his College (Jesus) at Oxford, Dr. Bernard r. Dr. Ber
nard ventured to put a joke upon Johnson ; but being terrified
by a tremendous snarl, ' Indeed, indeed, Doctor, believe me/
said he, * I meant nothing.' * Sir/ said Johnson, ' if you mean
nothing, say nothing/ and was quiet for the rest of the evening.
BY OZIAS HUMPHRY, R.A.
[' In a letter to his brother, the Rev. William Humphry, dated
September 19, 1764.' Croker's Boswell, ix. 257.
For Johnson's letters to Humphry see Life, iv. 268, and for
anecdotes of him see Northcote's Reynolds ', ii. 174, 248.]
The day after I wrote my last letter to you I was introduced
to Mr. Johnson by a friend : we passed through three very dirty
rooms to a little one that looked like an old counting-house,
where this great man was sat at his breakfast 2. The furniture
of this room was a very large deal writing-desk 3, an old walnut-
tree table, and five ragged chairs of four different sets. I was
very much struck with Mr. Johnson's appearance, and could
hardly help thinking him a madman for some time, as he sat
waving over his breakfast like a lunatic 4.
de tant de vertus apparentes, il est La Rochefoucauld, Maximes, No.
raisonnable de dire quelque chose de 528.
la faussete du me'pris de la mort. ... * Johnson was for some days in
II y a de la difference entre souffrir la June, 1782, the guest of Dr. Edwards,
mort constamment, et la mepriser. Vice-Principal of Jesus College.
Le premier est assez ordinaire ; mais Letters, ii. 257, n. 4 ; 261, n. i. No
je crois que 1'autre n'est jamais sin- Principal [not President] of Jesus
cere. ... La raison, dans laquelle on bore the name of Bernard. The story
croit trouver tant de ressources, est which follows resembles one told of
trop faible en cette rencontre pour the elder Pitt.
nous persuader de ce que nous vou- 2 Johnson in 1764 was living in
Ions. C'est elle au contraire qui Inner Temple Lane. Life, i. 350, n. 3,
nous trahit le plus souvent, et qui, 375, n. I ; iii. 406 n.
au lieu de nous inspirer le me'pris 3 No doubt the desk in the Library
de la mort, sert a nous decouvrir of Pembroke College.
ce qu'elle a d'affreux et de terrible.' 4 Hogarth, eleven years earlier,
He
By Ozias Humphry, R.A. 401
He is a very large man, and was dressed in a dirty brown
coat and waistcoat, with breeches that were brown also (though
they had been crimson), and an old black wig : his shirt collar
and sleeves were unbuttoned ; his stockings were down about
his feet, which had on them, by way of slippers, an old
pair of shoes. He had not been up long when we called on
him, which was near one o'clock : he seldom goes to bed till
near two in the morning ; and Mr. Reynolds tells me he generally
drinks tea about an hour after he has supped *. We had been
some time with him before he began to talk, but at length he
began, and, faith, to some purpose ! every thing he says is as
correct as a second edition 2 : 't is almost impossible to argue with
him, he is so sententious and so knowing.
I asked him, if he had seen Mr. Reynolds's pictures lately.
'No, Sir.' * He has painted many fine ones.' { I know he has/
he said, * as I hear he has been fully employed.' I told him,
I imagined Mr. Reynolds was not much pleased to be
overlooked by the Court3, as he must be conscious of his
superior merit. ' Not at all displeased,' he said, ' Mr. Reynolds
has too much good sense to be affected by it : when he was younger
he believed it would have been agreeable ; but now he does
not want their favour. It has ever been more profitable to
be popular among the people than favoured by the King: it
is no reflection on Mr. Reynolds not to be employed by them ;
but it will be a reflection for ever on the Court not to have
employed him. The King, perhaps, knows nothing but that
calling on Richardson, ' while he was knighted, when Johnson, who was at
talking, perceived a person standing that time an abstainer, ' drank one
at a window in the room, shaking his glass of wine to the health of Sir
head, and rolling himself about in a Joshua Reynolds.' Ante, ii. 322. See
strange ridiculous manner. He con- also Life, iv. 366.
eluded that he was an ideot, whom ( It has often been remarked that
his relations had put under the care the King never commissioned Sir
of Mr. Richardson.' It was Johnson. Joshua for a single picture ; indeed
Life, i. 146. he never sat to him but once, when
1 ' With tea solaces the midnight.' his portrait was painted by him for
Ib. i. 313, n. 4. the Royal Academy.3 Northcote's
2 Ante, ii. 391. Reynolds, ii. 80.
3 Five years later Reynolds was
VOL. II. D d he
402 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
he employs the best painter ; and as for the Queen, I don't
imagine she has any other idea of a picture but that it is a thing
composed of many colours.'
When Mr. Johnson understood that I had lived some time
in Bath, he asked me many questions that led, indeed, to
a general description of it. He seemed very well pleased ; but
remarked that men and women bathing together as they do
at Bath is an instance of barbarity that he believed could not
be paralleled in any part of the world x. He entertained us
about an hour and a half in this manner; then we took our
leave. I must not omit to add, that I am informed he denies
himself many conveniences, though he cannot well afford any,
that he may have more in his power to give in charities.
BY DR. LETTSOM.
[From Memorials of John Coakley Lettsom^ London, 1817,
2 vols. ; vol i, part a, p. 78.]
Jan. 13, 1785.
Dr. Johnson was a pious man ; attached, I confess, to estab
lished system, but it was from principle. In company I neither
found him austere nor dogmatical ; he certainly was not polite,
but he was not rude ; he was familiar with suitable company ;
but his language in conversation was sententious ; he was
sometimes jocular, but you felt as if you were playing with
a lion's paw. His body was large, his features strong, his face
scarred and furrowed with the scrophula ; he had a heavy look ;
but when he spoke it was like lightning out of a dark cloud.
1 Miss Willis in Humphry Clinker in which they fix their handkerchiefs,
(ed. 1792, i. 77) describes the bath : — to wipe the sweat from their faces.'
4 The ladies wear jackets and petti- See also id. pp. 85, 90.
coats of brown linen, with chip hats,
In
Miscellaneous Anecdotes. 403
Feb. 8, 1785.
In social company, when he unbended from critical austerity,
he afforded the finest dessert to a rational repast. I once dined
with him, Wilkes, Boswell, and Lee the American x ; what
a group ! ' It was ungrateful,' said Lee, ' for the Scotch who,
when emigrants, always found an asylum in America, to be the
most violent opponents to American independence, and to oppose
their benefactors in the cabinet and in the field.' 'The obli
gation,' replied Boswell, 'was not so considerable, when it is
understood that the Americans sent the Scotch emigrants to
Cape Fear, and such-like barren regions.' ' I think,' said John
son, ' they acted like philosophers.' 'Why?' Boswell inquired.
' Because,' added Johnson, ' if you turn a starved cow into clover,
it will soon kill itself by the sudden transition; and if the
Scotch, famished in their own country, had been placed in the
more fruitful parts of America, they would have burst by
a bellyful, like the cattle in clover2.' Nobody enjoyed a laugh
at the expense of the Scotch more than Boswell, at least when
it came from Johnson ; and the latter appeared to do it in
play; but his play was as rough as that of a bear, and you
felt fearful of coming within the embraces of so fierce an animal '
(p. 84).
MISCELLANEOUS ANECDOTES.
[From Croker's Boswell, vol. x. pp. 131-142.]
A gentleman once told Dr. Johnson, that a friend of his,
looking into the Dictionary which the Doctor had lately pub
lished, could not find the word ocean. ' Not find ocean ! '
1 Life, iii. 68 ; Letters, i. 397. is comparative. The Scotch would
2 ' Mr. Arthur Lee mentioned some not know it to be barren.'" Life,
Scotch who had taken possession of iii. 76. Boswell's 'long head' (ib.
a barren part of America, and won- iv. 166), which retained a great deal
dered why they should choose it. of the conversation, here failed him,
JOHNSON. " Why, Sir, all barrenness for all that Lettsom reports is new.
D d ^ exclaimed
404 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
exclaimed our Lexicographer ; ' Sir, I doubt the veracity of
your information!' He instantly stalked into his library; and,
opening the work in question with the utmost impatience, at
last triumphantly put his finger upon the subject of research,
adding, ' There, Sir ; there is ocean ! ' The gentleman was
preparing to apologise for the mistake ; but Dr. Johnson good-
naturedly dismissed the subject, with ' Never mind it, Sir ;
perhaps your friend spells ocean with an s V
The late Mr. Crauford, of Hyde Park Corner, being engaged
to dinner, where Dr. Johnson was to be, resolved to pay his
court to him ; and, having heard that he preferred Donne's
Satires to Pope's version of them, said, ' Do you know, Dr.
Johnson, that I like Dr. Donne's original Satires better than
Pope's.' Johnson said, ' Well, Sir, I can't help that 2.'
Miss Johnson, one of Sir Joshua's nieces3 (afterwards Mrs.
Deane), was dining one day at her uncle's with Dr. Johnson
and a large party : the conversation happening to turn on music,
Johnson spoke very contemptuously of that art, and added,
1 that no man of talent, or whose mind was capable of better
things, ever would or could devote his time and attention to
so idle and frivolous a pursuit.' The young lady, who was
very fond of music, whispered her next neighbour, 'I wonder
what Dr. Johnson thinks of King David.' Johnson overheard
her, and, with great good humour and complacency, said,
' Madam, I thank you ; I stand rebuked before you, and promise
that, on one subject at least, you shall never hear me talk
nonsense again.'
The honours of the University of Cambridge were once
1 Johnson, in the Preface to the pressed them while he was yet con-
Dictionary, writes : — ' It is remark- tending to rise in reputation, but
able that in reviewing my collection ventured them when he thought their
[of authorities] I found the word SEA deficiencies more likely to be im-
unexemplified.' Works, v. 45. puted to Donne than to himself.'
2 ' Pope published a revival in Works, viii. 295.
smoother numbers of Dr. Donne's 3 Reynolds's sister Elizabeth mar-
Satires. ... He seems to have known ried William Johnson. Taylor's
their imbecility, and therefore sup- Reynolds, i. 4.
performed
Miscellaneous Anecdotes. 405
performed to Dr. Johnson, by Dr. Watson, afterwards Bishop
of Llandaff, and then Professor of Chemistry, &c. T After
having spent the morning in seeing all that was worthy of
notice, the sage dined at his conductor's table, which was sur
rounded by various persons, all anxious to see so remarkable
a character, but the moment was not favourable ; he had been
wearied by his previous exertions, and would not talk. After
the party had dispersed, he said, ' I was tired, and would not
take the trouble, or I could have set them right upon several
subjects, Sir ; for instance, the gentleman who said he could
not imagine how any pleasure could be derived from hunting, —
the reason is, because man feels his own vacuity 2 less in action
than when at rest.'
Mr. Williams, the rector of Wellesbourne, in Warwickshire,
mentioned having once, when a young man, performed a stage
coach journey with Dr. Johnson, who took his place in the
vehicle, provided with a little book, which his companion soon
discovered to be Lucian3: he occasionally threw it aside, if
struck by any remark made by his fellow-travellers, and poured
forth his knowledge and eloquence in a full stream, to the delight
and astonishment of his auditors. Accidentally, the first subject
which attracted him was the digestive faculties of dogs, from
whence he branched off as to the powers of digestion in various
species of animals, discovering such stores of information, that
this particular point might have been supposed to have formed
his especial study, and so it was with every other subject started.
The strength of his memory was not less astonishing than his
eloquence ; he quoted from various authors, either in support
of his own argument or to confute those of his companions, as
readily, and apparently as accurately, as if the works had been
in his hands. The coach halted, as usual, for dinner, which
seemed to be a deeply interesting business to Johnson, who
1 For Johnson's visit to Cambridge, neither business nor pleasure.' Ante,
see Life, i. 487, 517 ; Letters, i. 183 n. i. 88.
Watson was a Fellow of Trinity 3 Johnson in the Harwich stage-
College. See ante, i. 307 n. coach read Pomponius Mela de Situ
2 ' I am now to review the last year, Orbis, and in the Oxford stage-coach
and find little but dismal vacuity, Euripides. Life, i. 465 ; iv. 311.
vehemently
406
Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
vehemently attacked a dish of stewed carp, using his fingers
only in feeding himself1.
Bishop Percy was at one time on a very intimate footing with
Dr. Johnson, and the Doctor one day took Percy's little daughter
upon his knee, and asked her what she thought of Pilgrim's
Progress'2'* The child answered, that she had not read it.
' No ! ' replied the Doctor ; ' then I would not give one farthing
for you ; ' and he set her down and took no further notice
of her.
My venerable friend, Dr. Fisher, of the Charter-house, now
in his eighty-fifth year, informs me (says Mr. Croker) that he
was one of the party who dined with Dr. Johnson at University
College, Oxford, in March, IJJ63. There were present, he
says, Dr. Wetherell, Johnson, Boswell, Coulson, Scott, Gwynn,
Dr. Chandler the traveller, and Fisher, then a young Fellow of the
College4. He recollects one passage of the conversation at
dinner : — Boswell quoted ' Quern Deus vult perdere prius de-
mentat3,' and asked where it was. After a pause Dr. Chandler
1 ' I took the liberty to observe to
Dr. Johnson, that he always eat fish
with his fingers. " Yes," said he ;
" but it is because I am short-sighted,
and afraid of bones, for which reason
I am not fond of eating many kinds
of fish, because I must use my
fingers." ' Life, v. 206.
2 Ante, i. 332.
3 Life, ii. 445.
4 For Dr. Wetherell, the Master of
the College, see ib. ii. 440, and for
Coulson, Letters, i. 325. Scott should
mean William Scott (Lord Stowell)
who had not yet left Oxford for
London ; but ' he was gone to the
country.' Life, ii. 440. John Scott
(Earl of Eldon), who had been in
1774-5 Fisher's colleague as a tutor,
but was married and settled in
London, says he was at the dinner.
Twiss's Eldon, ed. 1846, i. 65. For
Gwynn, seeZz/?,ii. 438. Of Chandler's
Travels Johnson wrote : — ' Do not
buy them ; they are duller than
Twiss's.' Letters, i. 321.
5 The ' learned friend ' mentioned
in my note on this passage (Life, iv.
181) was the late Professor Chandler,
Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.
Burton quotes the saying as ' Quos
Jupiter perdit dementat.' Anatomy
of Melancholy, ed. 1660, p. 6.
In a letter in the Gentleman' 's
Magazine, 1771, p. 262, signed W. W.
(perhaps William Warburton), For-
tuna quern vult perdere stultumfacit
is quoted as a fragment of Publius
Syrus.
Dryden translates it : —
4 For those whom God to ruin has
designed
He fits for fate, and first destroys
their mind.'
The Hind and the Panther,
Part iii. 1. 2387.
said
Miscellaneous Anecdotes. 407
said in Horace, — another pause ; then Fisher remarked, that
he knew no metre in Horace to which the words could be
reduced ; upon which Johnson said dictatorially ' The young
man is right.' Dr. Fisher recollects another conversation during
this visit to Oxford, when there was a Mr. Mortimer 1, a shallow,
vulgar man, who had no sense of Johnson's superiority, and
talked a great deal of flippant nonsense. At last he said, that
' metaphysics were all stuff— nothing but vague words.' ' Sir,'
said Johnson, 'do you know the meaning of the word meta
physics ? ' ' To be sure,' said the other. ' Then, Sir, you must
know that two and two make four, is a metaphysical pro
position.' — ' I deny it,' rejoined Mortimer, ' 't is an arithmetical
one; I deny it utterly.' 'Why, then, Sir/ said Johnson, 'if
you deny that we arrive at that conclusion by a metaphysical
process, I can only say, that plus in und hora unus asinus negabit,
quam centum philosophi in centum annis probaverint 2.'
The following letter was written with an agitated hand,
from the very chamber of death, by the amiable Bennet
Langton, and obviously interrupted by his feelings 3. It is not
addressed, but Mr. Langton's family believe it was intended for
Mr. Boswell :
'MY DEAR SIR, — After many conflicting hopes and fears
respecting the event of this heavy return of illness which has
assailed our honoured friend, Dr. Johnson, since his arrival from
Lichfield, about four days ago the appearances grew more and
more awful, and this afternoon at eight o'clock, when I arrived
at his house to see how he should be going on, I was acquainted
1 John James wrote on Sept. 16, the same evening, Mr. Langton came
1781 : — ' No news in Oxford, except to me, and in an agony of mind gave
the death of the Head of Lincoln, me to understand that our friend had
who is succeeded by one Mortimer, wounded himself in several parts of
a notorious sloven. The blackguard the body.' Ante, ii. 134. If this ac-
Stinton was a beau to him.' Letters count is true, Langton thought that
of Radcliffe and James, p. 155. Johnson had wounded himself in the
2 According to Lord Eldon, John- intention, not to lengthen his life, as
son quoted these words as the saying was really the case, but to shorten
of ' an author.' Twiss's Eldon, ed. it. It was perhaps the shock given
1846, i. 65. on learning of these wounds which
3 Hawkins writes :— ' At eleven, interrupted the letter.
at
408 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
at the door, that about three quarters of an hour before, he had
breathed his last. I am now writing in the room where his
venerable remains exhibit a spectacle, the interesting solemnity
of which, difficult as it would be in any sort to find terms to
express, so to you, my dear Sir, whose own sensations will paint
it so strongly, it would be of all men the most superfluous to
attempt to '
I have (says Mr. W. E. Surtees) heard my grandmother,
a daughter, by his first wife, of the Dean of Ossory1 (who
married secondly Miss Charlotte Cotterell), speak of Dr. Johnson,
as having frequently seen him in her youth. On one occasion,
probably about 1762-3, he spent a day or two in the country
with her father, and went with the family to see the house of
a rich merchant. The owner — all bows and smiles— seemed to
exult in the opportunity of displaying his costly articles of virtu
to his visitor, and, in going through their catalogue, observed,
' And this, Dr. Johnson, is Vesuvius Caesar.' My grandmother,
then but a girl, could not suppress a titter, when the Doctor
turned round, and thus, alike to the discomfiture of the merchant
and herself, sternly rebuked her aloud, ' What is the child
laughing at ? Ignorance is a subject for pity — not for laughter.'
BY DR. JOHN MOORE.
[From his Life of Smollett, prefixed to Smollett's Works, ed.
1797, vol. i. p. 154.]
In Boswell's Life of Johnson"2 mention is made of an observa
tion of his respecting the manner in which argument ought to be
rated. As Mr. Boswell has not recorded this with his usual
precision, and as I was present at Mr. Hoole's at the time
mentioned by Mr. Boswell, I shall here insert what passed,
of which I have a perfect recollection. Mention having been
1 John Lewis, Dean of Ossory, Cotterel. Life, i. 382; Letters, 11.310.
married Johnson's friend Charlotte 2 Life, iv. 281.
made
By John Nichols. 409
made that counsel were to be heard at the bar of the 'House of
Commons, one of the company at Mr. Hoole's asked Sir James
Johnston * if he intended to be present. He answered, that he
believed he should not, because he paid little regard to the
arguments of counsel at the bar of the House of Commons.
'Wherefore do you pay little regard to their arguments, Sir?'
said Dr. Johnson. 'Because/ replied Sir James, 'they argue for
their fee.' ' What is it to you, Sir/ rejoined Dr. Johnson, ' what
they argue for ? you have nothing to do with their motive, but
you ought to weigh their argument. Sir, you seem to confound
argument with assertion, but there is an essential distinction
between them. Assertion is like an arrow shot from a long
bow ; the force with which it strikes depends on the strength
of the arm that draws it. But argument is like an arrow
from a cross-bow, which has equal force whether shot by a boy
or a giant.'
The whole company was struck with the aptness and beauty
of this illustration ; and one of them said, * That is, indeed, one
of the most just and admirable illustrations that I ever heard in
my life.' ' Sir/ said Dr. Johnson, ' the illustration is none of
mine — you will find it in Bacon2.'
BY JOHN NICHOLS.
[From Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century, 9 vols.
8vo. 1812-15; vol. ix. p. 779, &c. Croker's Boswell, x. 62.]
Of his birth-place, Lichfield, Dr. Johnson always spoke with
a laudable enthusiasm. ' Its inhabitants/ he said, ' were more
1 Member for Dumfries. His Dear to his country by the names
brother married a lady who inherited Friend, patron, benefactor !
the wealth of Pulteney, Earl of Not Pulteney's wealth can Pul-
Bath. Letters of Hume to Strahan, teney save !
p. 203. Burns thus mentions Sir And Hopeton falls, the generous
James in his Epistle to Robert brave!
Graham : — And Stewart, bold as Hector.'
<What Whig but melts for good 2 The quotation is from Boyle.
Sir James ? Life, iv. 281, n. 3.
orthodox
4io
Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
orthodox in their religion, more pure in their language, and more
polite in their manners than any other town in the kingdom x ; '
and he often lamented that * no city of equal antiquity and worth
has been so destitute of a native to record its fame, and transmit
its history to posterity V
Mr. Cradock informs me, that he once accompanied Dr. John
son and Mr. Steevens to Marybone Gardens, to see La Serva
Padrona performed 3. . . . Mr. Steevens, being quite weary of the
Burletta, exclaimed, ' There is no plot ; it is merely an old fellow
* Dr. Johnson expatiated in praise
of Lichfield and its inhabitants, who,
he said, were " the most sober, decent
people in England, the genteelest in
proportion to their wealth, and spoke
the purest English."' Life, ii. 463.
* Sir (said he) we are a city of philo
sophers, we work with our heads,
and make the boobies of Birmingham
work for us with their hands.3 Ib. p.
464.
Staffordshire, in which Lichfield is
situated, was a. stronghold of Toryism
and even of Jacobitism. Ib. iii. 326.
Smollett, writing of Lichfield in
1747, says: — 'Even the females at
their assembly, and the gentlemen
at the races, affected to wear the
checquered stuff by which the Prince
Pretender and his followers had been
distinguished. Divers noblemen on
the course were insulted as apos
tates.' Smollett's England, ed. 1800,
iii. 259.
Nevertheless, 'in an answer of the
Bailiffs and Justices of the Peace of
the City of Lichfield, dated March 8,
1743, directed to the Lords of his
Majesty's Council, they say that they
have made diligent search through
out the city, and certify that all was
peaceable and quiet ; that there was
"no Papist (save only two or three
women) or Nonjuror in the city;
neither have we amongst us any
Quaker, or above two Dissenters
from the established Church of Eng
land, under any denomination what
soever ; " and that the whole city was
zealously attached to his Majesty's
person and government.' Harwood's
History of Lichfield, p. 309.
Lord Stanhope wrote from Lichfield
on Oct. 6, 1705, to Atterbury: — 'I
must confess (except it be your brother
Binckes) I lose no conversation by
being deaf in this place, which is just
as well stocked with good manners
and polite conversation as your friend
Dr. Wake is with deep learning, solid
sense and the knack of writing in
telligible English ! ' Atterbury's Cor
respondence, ii. 25. Binckes, a Pre
bendary of Lichfield, was supposed
to be the author of a pamphlet which
gave rise to a controversy between
Atterbury and Wake. Ib.
2 In 1806 the Rev. Thomas Har-
wood published a History of Lick-
field.
3 La Serva Padrona was a burletta
composed by Pergolesi, a Neapolitan
who was born in 1704 ; it was trans
lated into English by Stephen
Storace, father of the composer of
that name. Memoirs ofj. Cradock,
iii. 345-
For another visit to the gardens
where, if we can trust Steevens (a
very untrustworthy authority), John
son was ' the ringleader of a success
ful riot,' see Life, iv. 324.
cheated
By John Nichols. 411
cheated and deluded by his servant ; it is quite foblish and
unnatural.' Johnson instantly replied, ' Sir, it is not unnatural.
It is a scene that is acted in my family every day in my life.'
This did not allude to the maid servant, however, so much as to
two distressed ladies, whom he generously supported in his
house,. . .who were always quarrelling z. These ladies presided at
Dr. Johnson's table by turns when there was company ; which, of
course, would produce disputes. I ventured one day to say,
* Surely, Dr. Johnson, Roxana for this time should take place of
Statira.' 'Yes, Sir,' replied the Doctor; -but, in my family,
it has never been decided which is Roxana, and which is Statira/
It happened that I was in Bolt Court on the day when
Mr. Henderson2, the justly celebrated actor, was first introduced
to Dr. Johnson ; and the conversation turning on dramatic
subjects, Henderson asked the Doctor's opinion of Dido and its
author. ' Sir,' said Johnson, * I never did the man an injury ;
yet he would read his tragedy to me V
The following particulars of the unfortunate Samuel Boyse 4
I had from Dr. Johnson's own mouth :— ' By addicting himself
to low vices, among which were gluttony and extravagance,
Boyse rendered himself so contemptible and wretched, that he
frequently was without the least subsistence for days together.
After squandering away in a dirty manner any money which
he acquired, he has been known to pawn all his apparel.'
1 Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Des- these recitations ' a person who wrig-
moulines. He wrote to Mrs. Thrale gled up to him said, " Pray, who did
on Nov. 14, 1778 :—' Williams hates teach you to read, Mr. Henderson ?"
everybody. Levett hates Desmou- " My mother, Sir," was his reply.'
lines, and does not love Williams. Southey's Cowper, ii. 83.
Desmoulines hates them both. Poll 3 Johnson wrote to Dr. Taylor on
[Miss Carmichael] loves none of May 3, 1777: — 'Mr. Lucas has just
them.' Life, iii. 368 ; Letters, ii. 77. been with me. He has compelled me
2 Ante, ii. 318 ; Life, iv. 244. to read his tragedy, which is but
Southey, when he was engaged on a poor performance.' Letters, ii. 9.
Cowper's Life, wrote : — * Henderson In a note I suggest that he may be
gave such a lift to Cowper by reciting the author mentioned above ; but in
John Gilpin, that a page or two to this I was mistaken, for it was Joseph
his honour might with great pro- Reed.
priety be introduced.' Southey's 4 Life, iv. 407, n. 4, 442 ; ante, i.
Life and Corres., vi. 275. After one of 228.
Dr.
412 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
Dr. Johnson once collected a sum of money to redeem his
clothes, which in two days after were pawned again. 'This/
said the Doctor, 'was when my acquaintances were few, and
most of them as poor as myself. The money was collected
by shillings.'
On the morning of Dec. 7, 1784, only six days before his
death, Dr. Johnson requested to see the editor of these anecdotes1,
from whom he had borrowed some of the early volumes of the
Gentleman's Magazine, with a professed intention to point out
the pieces which he had written in that collection. The books
lay on the table, with many leaves doubled down, particularly
those which contained his share in the Parliamentary Debates ;
and such was the goodness of Johnson's heart, that he solemnly
declared, that 'the only part of his writings which then gave
him any compunction, was his account of the debates in the
Magazine •; but that at the time he wrote them he did not think
he was imposing on the world 2. The mode/ he said, ' was to fix
upon a speaker's name, then to conjure up an answer. He wrote
these debates with more velocity than any other of his productions ;
often three columns of the magazine within the hour. He once
wrote ten pages in one day.'
Dr. Johnson said to me, 'I may possibly live, or rather breathe,
three days, or perhaps three weeks ; but I find myself daily and
gradually worse.' . . . Before I quitted him, he asked, whether any
of the family of Faden, the printer, were living. Being told that
the geographer near Charing Cross was Faden's son, he said,
after a short pause, 'I borrowed a guinea of his father near thirty
years ago ; be so good as to take this, and pay it for me V
During the whole time of my intimacy with him, he rarely
permitted me to depart without some sententious advice. At
the latest of these affecting interviews, . . . his words at parting
were, ' Take care of your eternal salvation. Remember to
1 Life, iv. 407 ; ante, i. 446. in which the Idler was published, so
2 Ante, ii. 342. that he could have stopped the guinea
3 Faden for a few weeks had had out of the money due to Johnson.
a share in the Universal Chronicle Life, i. 330, n. 3 ; ante, i. 447.
observe
By the Rev. Mr. Parker. 413
observe the Sabbath. Let it never be a day of business, nor
wholly a day of dissipation V He concluded his solemn farewell
with, ' Let my words have their due weight. They are the words
of a dying man.' I never saw him more. In the last five or six
days of his life but few even of his most intimate friends were
admitted. Every hour that could be abstracted from his bodily
pains and infirmities, was spent in prayer and the warmest
ejaculations ; and in that pious, praiseworthy, and exemplary
manner, he closed a life begun, continued, and ended in virtue 2.
BY THE REV. MR. PARKER.
[' The following anecdotes are told by Mr. Parker, from the
relation of Mrs. Aston and her sister.' — Croker's Boswell,
ix. 249.]
Dr. Johnson's friendship for Mrs. Elizabeth Aston3 commenced
at the palace in Lichfield. the residence of Mr. Walmesley4: with
Mrs. Gastrel he became acquainted in London, at the house of
her brother-in-law, Mr. Hervey5. During the Doctor's annual
visits to his daughter-in-law, Lucy Porter, he spent much of his
time at Stow Hill6, where Mrs. Gastrel and Mrs. Elizabeth
Aston resided. They were the daughters of Sir Thomas Aston 7,
of Aston Hall in Cheshire, of whom it is said, that being applied
to for some account of his family, to illustrate the history of
Cheshire, he replied, that ' the title and estate had descended
from father to son for thirty generations, and that he believed
they were neither much richer nor much poorer than they were
at first.'
1 ' He said he would not have Sun- 4 Life, i. 81. He lived in the
day kept with rigid severity and Bishop's palace, ' the scene of many
gloom, but with a gravity and sim- happy days in Johnson's early life.'
plicity of behaviour.' Life, ii. 72. See Ib. ii. 467.
ante, i. 17, 301. 5 Ante, \. 254 n.
2 * In all our works begun, con- 6 Life, ii. 470 ; Letters, i. 160.
tinued, and ended in thee.' The 7 The family in the main line must
Order of the Holy Communion, Book be extinct, for there is no Aston in
of Common Prayer. the list of Baronets.
3 Life, i. 83 ; Letters, i. 160 n.
He
4i4
Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
He used to say of Dr. Hunter, master of the free grammar
school, Lichfield, that he never taught a boy in his life — he
whipped and they learned x. Hunter was a pompous man,
and never entered the school without his gown and cassock,
and his wig full dressed. He had a remarkably stern look, and
Dr. Johnson said, he could tremble at the sight of Miss Seward2,
she was so like her grandfather.
Mrs. Gastrel was on a visit at Mr. Hervey's, in London, at the
time that Johnson was writing the Rambler ; the printer's boy
would often come after him to their house, and wait while he wrote
off a paper for the press in a room full of company 3. A great
portion of the Lives of the Poets was written at Stow Hill4: he
had a table by one of the windows, which was frequently
surrounded by five or six ladies engaged in work or conversation.
Mrs. Gastrel had a very valuable edition of Bailey's Dictionary 5,
to which he often referred. She told him that Miss Seward said
that he had made poetry of no value by his criticism. * Why,
my dear lady/ replied he, ' if silver is dirty, it is not the less
valuable for a good scouring 6.'
1 * Mr. Langton one day asked him
how he had acquired so accurate a
knowledge of Latin ; he said, ' My
master whipt me very well. Without
that, Sir, I should have done nothing.'
Life, i. 45. ' Abating his brutality,
he was a very good master.' Ib. ii.
146. See ante, i. 159.
2 The epigram in Miss Edge-
worth's Absentee (ch. 16) —
' Two passions alternately govern
her fate,
Her business is love, but her
pleasure is hate' —
was made by R. L. Edgeworth on
Miss Seward. My authority for this
statement is his grandson, Professor
Edgeworth.
3 Life, i. 203 ; iii. 42. ( The ori
ginal manuscripts of the Rambler,'
writes Hawkins (p. 382), 'have passed
through my hands, and I am war
ranted to say that he never blotted
out a line.' See Life, i. 331, for his
writing ah Idler in half an hour.
4 This is a great exaggeration.
The composition of the Lives spread
over not much less than four years,
from Easter 1777 to the beginning of
1781. In 1778 and 1780 he did not
visit Lichfield. In 1779 and 1781
he spent in it a few weeks.
5 It is not easy to understand how
any edition of Bailey could be 'very
valuable.' See ante, ii. 95.
6 See Life, iv. 331, for ' a high com
pliment which Johnson paid to Miss
Seward ' on her Ode on Captain
Cook. R. L. Edgeworth wrote to
Sir Walter Scott :— ' Now, to my
certain knowledge, most of the pas
sages which have been selected in
the various reviews of that work were
written by Dr. Darwin.' Memoirs of
R. L. Edgeworth, p. 399. Never
theless Miss Seward wrote : — ' So
A large
By the Rev. Mr. Parker. 415
A large party had one day been invited to meet the Doctor
at Stow- Hill : the dinner waited far beyond the usual hour, and
the company were about to sit down, when Johnson appeared at
the great gate ; he stood for some time in deep contemplation,
and at length began to climb it, and, having succeeded in clear
ing it, advanced with hasty strides towards the house. On his
arrival Mrs. Gastrel asked him, ' if he had forgotten that there
was a small gate for foot passengers by the side of the carriage
entrance/ * No, my dear lady, by no means/ replied the Doctor ;
' but I had a mind to try whether I could climb a gate now as
I used to do when I was a lad.'
One day Mrs. Gastrel set a little girl to repeat to him Cato's
soliloquy, which she went through very correctly. The Doctor,
after a pause, asked the child, ' What was to bring Cato to an
end ? ' She said, it was a knife. ' No, my deaf, it was not so.'
c My aunt Polly said it was a knife.' ' Why, aunt Polly's knife
may dot but it was a dagger, my dear V He then asked her the
meaning of c bane and antidote 2,' which she was unable to give.
Mrs. Gastrel said, ' You cannot expect so young a child to know
the meaning of such words.' He then said, ' My dear, how many
pence are there in sixpence ?' 'I cannot tell, Sir,' was the half-
terrified reply. On this, addressing himself to Mrs. Gastrel, he
said, * Now, my dear lady, can any thing be more ridiculous than
to teach a child Cato's soliloquy, who does not know how many
pence there are iii sixpence?'
The ladies at Stow-Hill would occasionally rebuke Dr. Johnson
for the indiscriminate exercise of his charity to all who applied
little value did the Society which propriating her verses. C. Dar-
struck a medal in honour of Captain win's Life of Erasmus Darwin,
Cook set upon my poem, thatj while p. 90.
they avowedly presented one to every x 'The soul secured in her exist-
person who had taken public interest ence smiles
in his fate and virtues, they took no At the drawn dagger, and defies
notice of me/ Letters of Anna its point.'
Seivard, iii. 32. It is to be hoped 2 ' Thus am I doubly armed : my
that the medal went to Dr. Darwin, death and life,
whom she had the impudence to My bane and antidote, are both
accuse, on another occasion, of ap- before me.'
for
416 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
for it. * There was that woman,' said one of them, ' to whom you
yesterday gave half-a-crown, why she was at church to-day in
long sleeves and ribands/ 'Well, my dear/ replied Johnson,
1 and if it gave the woman pleasure, why should she not wear
them1?'
He had long promised to write Mr. Walmesley's epitaph, and
Mrs. W. waited for it, in order to erect a monument to her
husband's memory2: procrastination, however, one of the Doctor's
few failings, prevented its being finished ; he was engaged upon
it in his last illness, and when the physicians, at his own request,
informed him of his danger, he pushed the papers from before
him, saying, 'It was too late to write the epitaph of another,
when he should so soon want one himself/
BY WILLIAM WELLER PEPYS.
[From a letter from Mr. Pepys to Mrs. Montagu in the
Montagu MSS., dated August 4, 1781. Croker's Boswell, x. 114.
For W. W. Pepys, see Life, iv. 82 ; Letters, ii. 136.]
I met Johnson some time ago at Streatham, and such a day
did we pass in disputation upon the Life of our dear friend Lord
Lyttelton, as I trust it will never be my fate to pass again3.
The moment the cloth was removed he challenged me to come
out (as he called it), and say what I had to object to his Life of
Lord Lyttelton. This, you see, was a call which, however dis-
( K
What signifies," says some years, as her epitaph in Lichfield
one, "giving half-pence to common Cathedral shows. He has left a
beggars ? they only lay it out in gin monument to Walmesley's memory in
or tobacco?" " And why should they the Lives of the Poets. Life, i. 81.
be denied such sweeteners of their He wrote epitaphs on his father,
existence ? " says Johnson.3 Ante, i. mother and brother, a fortnight be-
204. fore his death. Ib. iv. 393. ' He
' He is an old man (said Burke of would also/ says Hawkins (ante, ii.
a beggar) ; and if gin be his com- 123), ' have written in Latin verse an
fort, let him have gin.' Prior's epitaph for Mr. Garrick, but found
Burke, ed. 1872, p. 242. himself unequal to the task.'
2 She outlived Johnson nearly two 3 Ib. i. 244; ii. 193.
agreeable
By the Rev. Hastings Robinson. 417
agreeable to myself and the rest of the company, I could not but
obey, and so to it we went for three or four hours without
ceasing. He once observed, that it was the duty of a biographer
to state all the failings of a respectable character J. . . . He took
great credit for not having mentioned the coarseness of Lord
Lytteltons manners 2. I told him, that if he would insert that in
the next edition, I would excuse him all the rest 3. We shook
hands, however, at parting ; which put me much in mind of the
parting between Jaques and Orlando — 'God be with you, let
us meet as seldom as we can. Fare you well ; I hope we
shall be better strangers to you4.' We have not met again
till last Tuesday, and then I must do him the justice to say that
he did all in his power to show me that he was sorry for the
former attack. But what hurts me all this while is, not that
Johnson should go unpunished, but that our dear and respect
able friend should ... be handed down to succeeding generations
under the appellation of poor Lyttelton 5.
BY THE REV. HASTINGS ROBINSON.
[Communicated to Mr. Croker by the Rev. Hastings Robinson,
Rector of Great Warley, Essex. Croker 's Boswell, x. 126.]
Miss Seward, her father6 (the editor of Beaumont and Fletcher),
the Rev. R. G. Robinson, of Lichfield, and Dr. Johnson, were
passing the day at the palace at Lichfield, of which Mr. Seward
was the occupier. The conversation turned upon Dr. Dodd,
1 Life, iii. 155 ; ante, ii. 3. better strangers.' As You Like It,
2 Ante, ii. 5. Act iii. sc. 2. 1. 273.
3 On the principle — 5 For Miss Burney's description
* Quis tulerit Gracchos de sedi- of this scene, see Life, iv. 65.
done querentes.' 6 The Rev. Thomas Seward. Life,
Juvenal, Satires, ii. 24. ii. 467 ; Letters, i. 10. He lived in
Note by Croker. the Bishop's Palace, which, according
4 'JAQUES. God be wi' you; let's to Johnson, Miss Porter might have
meet as little as we can. had in 1763 for a rent of ^20. Ib. i.
ORLANDO. I do desire we may be 100.
VOL. II. E e who
418 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
who had been recently executed for forgery x. It proceeded as
follows. Miss SEWARD. * I think, Dr. Johnson, you applied
to see Mr. Jenkinson2 in his behalf/ JOHNSON. 'Why, yes,
Madam ; I knew it was a man having no interest, writing to
a man who had no interest 3 ; but I thought with myself, when
Dr. Dodd comes to the place of execution, he may say, " Had
Dr. Johnson written in my behalf, I had not been here," and
(with great emphasis] I could not bear the thought ! ' MlSS
SEWARD. ' But, Dr. Johnson, would you have pardoned Dr.
Dodd ? ' JOHNSON. * Madam, had I been placed at the head
of the legislature, I should certainly have signed his death-
warrant ; though no law, either human or divine, forbids our
deprecating punishment, either from ourselves or others4/
In one of his visits to Lichfield, Dr. Johnson called upon
Mrs. Gastrell of Stowe 5, near that city. She opened the Prayer-
book, and pointed out a passage, with the wish that he would
read it. He began, ' We have heard (heerd) with our ears ' — she
stopped him, saying, ' Thank you, Doctor ! you have read all
I wish. I merely wanted to know whether you pronounced that
word heerd or hard6/ 'Madam/ he replied, £" heard" [heerd] is
1 On June 27, 1777. In August thief are yet shocked at the thought
Johnson visited Lichfield, and after- of destroying him. His crime shrinks
wards Ashbourne, where he gave to nothing compared with his misery.'
Boswell an account of Dodd. Life, On Dodd's execution Johnson wrote
iii. 139. to Boswell : — ' Surely the voice of the
2 Charles Jenkinson, first Earl of public, when it calls so loudly, and
Liverpool. Ib. iii. 147; ante, ii. 283. calls only for mercy,ought to be heard.'
3 Jenkinson had interest, for he Life, iii. 120. See also ib. iv. 207.
had been Lord Bute's private secre- 5 Ib. ii. 470.
tary, and was one of the leaders 6 She must have said 'heerd or
among the *' King's Friends.' herd.' He told Boswell that his
4 This anecdote, which comes reason for pronouncing it heerd was
through two people, must be received ' that if heard was pronounced herd,
with caution. If Johnson used these there would be a single exception
words it was no doubt in ' talking for from the English pronunciation of
victory ' (ante, i. 390). In the Ram- the syllable ear, and he thought it
bier, No. 114, he wrote: — 'All but better not to have that exception/
murderers have at their last hour Ib. iii. 197. When I was an under-
the common sensations of mankind graduate at Pembroke College one
pleading in their favour. They who of the tutors always pronounced break
would rejoice at the correction of a breek.
nonsense
By Mrs. Rose. 419
nonsense ; there is but one word of that sound (hard) [herd] in
the language *.'
BY MRS. ROSE.
[' Communicated by Mrs. Rose, the daughter of Dr. Farr,
of Plymouth, and the daughter-in-law of Dr. Johnson's old
friend, Dr. Rose of Chiswick.' Croker's Boswell, ix. 252. For
Dr. Rose, see Letters, ii. 325.]
Dr. Mudge used to relate, as a proof of Dr. Johnson's
quick discernment into character: — When he was on a visit to
Dr. Mudge at Plymouth2, the inhabitants of the Dock (now
Devonport) were very desirous of their town being supplied
with water, to effect which it was necessary to obtain the consent
of the corporation of Plymouth ; this was obstinately refused,
the Dock being considered as an upstart. And a rival, Alderman
Tolcher, who took a very strong part, called one morning, and
immediately opened on the subject to Dr. Johnson, who appeared
to give great attention, and when the alderman had ceased
speaking, replied, ' You are perfectly right, Sir ; I would let the
rogues die of thirst, for I hate a Docker from my heart.' The
old man went away quite delighted, and told all his acquaint
ances how completely ' the great Dr. Johnson was on his side of
the question V
It was after the publication of the Lives of the Poets that
Dr. Farr, being engaged to dine with Sir Joshua Reynolds,
mentioned, on coming in, that, in his way, he had seen a
1 This seems a contradiction of no! I am against the Dockers; I
what he said to Boswell. am a Plymouth man. Rogues ! let
2 Life, i. 378. them die of thirst. They shall not
3 ' Johnson, affecting to entertain have a drop ! " ' Ib. i. 379. John-
the passions of the place, was violent son at this time had not received a
in opposition ; and, half laughing at doctor's degree, so that Mrs. Rose's
himself for his pretended zeal where report is not quite accurate.
he had no concern, exclaimed, " No,
E e 2 caricature
420 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
caricature, which he thought clever, of the nine muses flogging
Dr. Johnson round Parnassus. The admirers of Gray and others,
who thought their favourites hardly treated in the Lives, were
laughing at Dr. Farr's account of the print, when Dr. Johnson
was himself announced. Dr. Farr being the only stranger, Sir
Joshua introduced him, and, to Dr. Farr's infinite embarrassment,
repeated what he had just been telling them. Johnson was not
at all surly on the occasion, but said, turning to Dr. Farr, ' Sir,
I am very glad to hear this. I hope the day will never arrive
when I shall neither be the object of calumny or ridicule, for then
I shall be neglected and forgotten V
It was near the close of his life that two young ladies, who
were warm admirers of .his works, but had never seen himself,
went to Bolt Court, and, asking if he was at home, were shown
up stairs, where he was writing. He laid down his pen on their
entrance, and, as they stood before him, one of the females
repeated a speech of some length, previously prepared for the
occasion. It was an enthusiastic effusion, which, when the
speaker had finished, she panted for her idol's reply. What was
her mortification when all .he said was, ' Fiddle-de-dee, my dear.'
Much pains were taken by Mr. Hayley's friends to prevail on
Dr. Johnson to read The Triumphs of Temper, when it was in its
zenith 2 ; at last he consented, but never got beyond the two first
1 Ante, i. 270 ; ii. 207. mixture of strong sense and flowing
2 It was published in 1781. Horace numbers.' Misc. Works, ii. 259.
Walpole wrote on March 3 of that Person, who calls him ' poetarum
year (Letters, viii. 15): — 'For want et criticorum pessimus ' (Person's
of subject of admiration Sir Joseph Tracts, ed. 1815, p. 307), wrote the
Yorke is called by the newspapers following lines in ridicule of the
a great man, and for want of taste flattery exchanged between Hayley
the Monthly Reviewers call Mr. and Miss Seward : —
Hayley a great poet, though he has < Miss Seward loquitur
no more ear or imagination than they „ Tuneful ^ Britain>s glory>
ay.e* , Mr. Hayley, that is you."
Gibbon wrote on July 3, 1782 :—
* I hope you like Mr. Hayley's poem ; Hayley respondet
he rises with his subject, and, since " Ma'am, you carry all before you,
Pope's death, I am satisfied that Trust me, Lichfield Swan, you
England has not seen so happy a do."
pages
By Mrs. Rose.
421
pages, of which he uttered a few words of contempt that I have
now forgotten. They were, however, carried to the author, who
revenged himself by portraying Johnson as Rumble in his comedy
of The Mausoleum x ; and subsequently he published, without
his name, a Dialogue in the Shades between Lord Chesterfield
and Dr. Johnson, more distinguished for malignity than wit.
Being anonymous, and possessing very little merit, it fell still
born from the press2.
Dr. Johnson sent his Life of Lord Lyttelton in MS. to Mrs.
Montagu, who was much dissatisfied with it, and thought her
friend every way underrated ; but the Doctor made no alteration.
When he subsequently made one of a party at Mrs. Montagu's,
he addressed his hostess two or three times after dinner, with
a view to engage her in conversation : receiving only cold and
brief answers, he said, in a low voke, to General Paoli, who sat
next him, and who told me the story, ' You see, Sir, I am no
longer the man for Mrs. Montagu3.'
Miss Seward.
" Ode, didactic, epic, sonnet,
Mr. Hayley, you're divine."
Hayley.
" Ma'am, I'll take my oath upon it,
You yourself are all the
Nine.'"
Watson's Person, ed. 1861, p. 307.
' Hayley,' wrote Southey, ' has been
worried as schoolboys worry a cat.
I am treating him as a man deserves
to be treated who was in his time,
by popular election, king of the Eng
lish poets,' &c. Southey's Corres.
v. 179. 'I was born,' he adds,
« during his reign, and owe him some
thing for having first made me ac
quainted by name with those Spanish
writers of whom I afterwards knew
much more than he did.' Ib. p. 210.
' Lord Holland,' says Rogers ( Table
Talk, p. 57), 'admires greatly the
notes to his various poems.'
1 One of Plays of Three Acts,
written for a Private Theatre.
Gentleman's Magazine, 1784, p. 354.
2 Reviewed in the Gentleman's
Magazine, 1787, pp. 520, 612. Miss
Seward wrote to Hayley: — 'You
must learn to write below yourself,
to veil those rays of imagination, wit
and knowledge which illuminate your*
writings, or it will always be in
vain that you write anonymously.'
Seward's Letters, &c., i. 302.
3 Life, iv. 64, 73 ; Letters, ii. 139,
n. i ; ante, ii. 193.
Johnson had called the poet ' poor
Lyttelton.' Works, viii. 491 ; Life,
iv. 58, n. i. Horace Walpole wrote
on March 3, 1781 :— * Poor Lyttelton
were the words of offence. Mrs.
Vesey sounded the trumpet. It has
not, I believe, produced any alter
cation, but at a blue-stocking meet
ing held by Lady Lucan, Mrs. Mon
tagu and Dr.Johnson kept at different
ends of the chamber, and set up altar
against altar there. There she told
me as a mark of her high displeasure,
that she would never ask him to
Mrs.
422 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
Mrs. Piozzi related to me, that when Dr. Johnson one day
observed, that poets in general preferred some one couplet they
had written to any other, she replied, that she did not suppose he
had a favourite ; he told her she was mistaken — he thought his
best lines were :—
' The encumber'd oar scarce leaves the hostile coast,
Through purple billows and a floating host1.'
FROM STEBBING SHAW.
[Anecdotes from Shaw's History of Staffordshire, i. 346, and
the Gentleman's Magazine, 1785, p. 495.]
The large willow-tree in the fore-ground of the view of Stow
Hill has been generally supposed to have been planted by Dr. John
son or his father, but as the Doctor never would admit the fact,
it is probable that the vicinity of a building known by the name
of the Parchment House occasioned such supposition. The
business of parchment-making was carried on by old Mr. John
son 2 at that place, until he had greatly enriched his servants and
injured his own fortune. ... Dr. Johnson never failed to visit
this tree when he came to Lichfield. During his visit here in
dinner again. I took her side and sexes, whom she frequently enter-
fomented the quarrel.' Letters, viii. tained at dinner. A service of plate
16. and a table plentifully covered dis-
Wraxall wrote of her (Memoirs, posed her guests to admire the
ed. 1815, i. 140) : — ' Impressed prob- splendour of her Fortune not less
ably from the suggestions of her own than the lustre of her Talents.'
knowledge of the world, with a deep x ' The dreaded coast.'
conviction of that great truth laid Vanity of Human Wishes, 1. 239.
down by Moliere which no Man of See Life, i. 272, for his favourite
Letters ever disputed, that Le vrai line in his translation of Pope's
Amphytrion est celui chez qui Von Messiah.
dine [Le veritable Amphitryon est 2 In connexion with this manu-
1'Amphitryon ou Ton dine], Mrs.Mon- facture he was threatened with a pro-
tagu was accustomed to open her secution by the Excise Board. Life,
house to a large company of both i. 36, n. 5.
1781
Adam Smith on Dr. Johnson. 423
1781 he desired Dr. Jones to give him an account of it, saying,
it was by far the largest tree of the kind he had ever seen or
heard of, and therefore wished to give an account of it in the
Philosophical Transactions x.
From the attachment shown to it by the Doctor, it has ever
since been regarded as little inferior in celebrity to Shakespeare's
Mulberry, or the Boscobel Oak, and specimens of its wood have ,
been worked into vases and other ornaments. He once took
an admeasurement of it with a piece of string, assisted by a little
boy, to whom he gave half a crown for his trouble. The
dimensions of the willow in 1781, taken by Dr. Trevor Jones,
and communicated in a letter to Dr. Johnson, are as follows : —
1 The trunk rises to the height of twelve feet eight inches, and
is then divided into fifteen large ascending branches, which, in
very numerous and crowded subdivisions, spread at the top in
a circular form, not unlike the appearance of a shady oak,
inclining a little towards the east. The circumference of the
trunk at the bottom is sixteen feet, in the middle eleven feet,
and at the top, immediately below the branches, thirteen feet.
The entire height of the tree is forty-nine feet, overshadowing
a plain not far short of four thousand feet V
ADAM SMITH ON DR. JOHNSON.
[From The Bee, or Literary Weekly Intelligencer. By James
Anderson. Edinburgh, 1791, 8vo. vol. iii. p. 2.]
Of the late Dr. Samuel Johnson, Dr. Smith had a very
contemptuous opinion3. 'I have seen that creature/ said he,
1 Life, ii. 40. of Johnson's Dictionary he speaks
2 A drawing of the tree is given in of ' the very extraordinary merit ' of
the Gentleman's Magazine for 1785, the author. Ib. i. 298, n. 2. The Pre-
p. 412. face to his Shakespeare he styled
3 ' Dr. Adam Smith once observed ' the most manly piece of criticism
to me (writes Bos well) that "Johnson that was ever published in any
knew more books than any man country.' Ante, ii. 307.
alive."' Life, i. 71. In his review For Johnson's 'unlucky altercation
< bolt
424
Minor A necdotes of Dr. Johnson.
1 bolt up in the midst of a mixed company ; and, without any
previous notice, fall upon his knees behind a chair, repeat the
Lord's Prayer and then resume his seat at table. He has
played this freak over and over, perhaps five or six times in the
course of an evening1. It is not hypocrisy, but madness.
Though an honest sort of man himself, he is always patronising
scoundrels 2. Savage, for instance, whom he so loudly praises,
was but a worthless fellow 3 ; his pension of fifty pounds never
lasted him longer than a few days4.' [For an anecdote which
here follows about Savage, see ante, i. 372 n.~\
He was no admirer of the Rambler or the Idler, and hinted,
that he had never been able to read them 5. He was averse to
the contest with America 6, yet he spoke highly of Johnson's
political pamphlets. But, above all, he was charmed with that
respecting Falkland's Islands, as it displayed, in such forcible
language, the madness of modern wars7.
with him,' see Life, 111.331, and for the
imaginary altercation, see ib. v. 369,
n. 5. He was a member of the
Literary Club. ' Smith, too, is now
of our Club,' wrote Boswell. ' It has
lost its select merit.' Ib. ii. 430, n. I.
1 There is, I am convinced, great
exaggeration in this, not probably on
Smith's part, who was one of the
most truthful of men, but on his
reporter's. See ib. i. 483 ; v. 307.
2 ' He was (writes Hawkins) one
of the most quick-sighted men I ever
knew in discovering the good and
amiable qualities of others.' Ante,
ii. 89.
1 It has always been found that
those whose extensive knowledge
makes them best acquainted with the
general course of human actions are
precisely those who take the most
favourable view of them. The greatest
observer and the most profound
thinker is invariably the most lenient
judge.' Buckle's History of Civiliza
tion in England, ed. 1872, i. 221.
3 Boswell writes of Savage as ' a
man of whom it is difficult to speak
impartially, without wondering that
he was for some time the intimate
companion of Johnson.' Life, i. 161.
Johnson never 'loudly praises' Sa
vage, but exhibits his bad as fully as
his good qualities.
4 This Smith learnt from John
son's Life, of Savage, Works, viii.
153. If improvidence makes a worth
less fellow, then Goldsmith was
among the most worthless.
5 There were those who could not
read Adam Smith's great work. Miss
Berry, who died in 1852, remem
bered 'how Charles Fox used to
wonder that people could make such
a fuss about that dullest of new
books — Adam Smith's Wealth of
Nations' H. Martineau's Auto
biography, i. 438.
6 Hume's Letters to Strahan,
pp. 292-3, 296, 299.
7 Life, ii. 134, n. 3. See also ante,
ii. 16.
DUGALD
Dugald Stewart on Boswell's Anecdotes. 425
DUGALD STEWART ON BOSWELL'S ANECDOTES.
[From Dugald Stewart's Works, ed. 1854, iv. 230.]
* I have often experienced/ Mr. Boswell gravely remarks in
his Tour with Dr. Johnson, 'that scenes through which a man
has passed, improve by lying in the memory ; they grow mellow1.'
To account for this curious mental phenomenon, which he plainly
considered as somewhat analogous to the effect of time in im
proving the quality of wine, he has offered various theories,
without however once touching upon the real cause — the im
perceptible influence of imagination in supplying the decaying
impressions of memory. The fact, as he has stated it, was
certainly exemplified in his own case ; for his stories, which
I have often listened to with delight, seldom failed to improve
wonderfully in such keeping as his memory afforded. They were
much more amusing than even his printed anecdotes ; not only
from the picturesque style of his conversational, or rather his
convivial diction, but perhaps still more from the humorous and
somewhat whimsical seriousness of his face and manner. As for
those anecdotes which he destined for the public, they were
deprived of any chance of this sort of improvement ', by the
scrupulous fidelity with which (probably from a secret distrust
of the accuracy of his recollection) he was accustomed to record
every conversation which he thought interesting, a few hours
after it took place.
BY GILBERT STUART.
[The following anecdote I owe to the kindness of Mr. John
Douglass Brown, jun., of the University Club, Philadelphia, who
copied it from Stuart's History of the Rise of the Arts of Design
' Life, v. 333.
in
426 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
in the United States, vol. i. p. 181. This work is not in the
British Museum. Stuart studied under West in 1778.]
Dr. Johnson called one morning on Mr. West [the painter]
to converse with him on American affairs. After some time
Mr. West said that he had a young American [Gilbert Stuart]
living with him, from whom he might derive some information,
and introduced Stuart. The conversation continued (Stuart
being thus invited to take a part in it,) when the Doctor observed
to Mr. West that the young man spoke very good English ; and
turning to Stuart rudely asked him where he had learned it.
Stuart very promptly replied, ( Sir, I can better tell you where
I did not learn it — it was not from your dictionary.' Johnson
seemed aware of his own abruptness, and was not offended.
BY THE REV. RICHARD WARNER.
[From Warner's Tour through the Northern Counties, published
in 1802, vol. i. p. 105.]
During the last visit which the Doctor made to Lichfield r, the
friends with whom he was staying missed him one morning
at the breakfast-table. On inquiring after him of the servants,
they understood he had set off from Lichfield at a very early
hour, without mentioning to any of the family whither he was
going. The day passed without the return of the illustrious
guest, and the party began to be very uneasy on his account,
when, just before the supper-hour, the door opened, and the
Doctor stalked into the room. A solemn silence of a few
minutes ensued, nobody daring to inquire the cause of his
absence, which was at length relieved by Johnson addressing
1 Johnson, during his last visit to Johnson's schoolmaster, Hunter, who
Lichfield, told the Rev. Henry White married Lucy Porter, sister of Henry
that what is here recounted had Porter, Mrs. Johnson's first husband,
happened a few years earlier. Life, Nichols, Lit. Hist. vii. 362.
iv. 372. White was the grandson of
the
By Mr. Wickins. 427
the lady of the house in the following manner : * Madam. I beg
your pardon for the abruptness of my departure from your house
this morning, but I was constrained to it by my conscience.
Fifty years ago, Madam, on this day, I committed a breach
of filial piety, which has ever since lain heavy on my mind, and
has not till this day been expiated. My father, you recollect,
was a bookseller, and had long been in the habit of attending
Uttoxeter market x, and opening a stall for the sale of his books
during that day. Confined to his bed by indisposition, he
requested me, this time fifty years ago, to visit the market, and
attend the stall in his place. But, Madam, my pride prevented
me from doing my duty, and I gave my father a refusal. To do
away the sin of this disobedience, I this day went in a postchaise
to Uttoxeter, and going into the market at the time of high
business, uncovered my head, and stood with it bare an hour
before the stall which my father had formerly used, exposed to
the sneers of the standers-by and the inclemency of the weather ;
a penance by which I trust I have propitiated heaven for this
only instance, I believe, of contumacy toward my father.'
BY MR. WICKINS.
[c Dr. Harwood informs me that Mr. Wickins was a respectable
draper in Lichfield. It is very true that Dr. Johnson was
accustomed to call on him during his visits to his native town.
The garden attached to his house was ornamented in the manner
he describes, and no doubt was ever entertained of the exactness
of his anecdotes.' Croker's Boswell, ix. 245.]
Walking one day with him in my garden at Lichfield, we
entered a small meandering shrubbery, whose ' vista not
lengthened to the sight/ gave promise of a larger extent.
I observed, that he might perhaps conceive that he was entering
1 Life, i. 36, n. 3. Uttoxeter is so that not much trust can be
about eighteen miles from Lichfield. put in this full report of Johnson's
Warner visited Lichfield in 1801, words.
an
428 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
an extensive labyrinth, but that it would prove a deception,
though I hoped not an unpardonable one. * Sir/ said he, ' don't
tell me of deception ; a lie, Sir, is a lie, whether it be a lie to the
eye or a lie to the ear.'
Passing on we came to an urn which I had erected to the
memory of a deceased friend. I asked him how he liked that
urn — it was of the true Tuscan order. ' Sir,' said he, ' I hate
urns1 ; they are nothing, they mean nothing, convey no ideas but
ideas of horror — would they were beaten to pieces to pave our
streets!'
We then came to a cold bath. I expatiated upon its salubrity.
' Sir/ said he, ' how do you do ? } ' Very well, I thank you,
Doctor.' * Then, Sir, let well enough alone, and be content.
I hate immersion2.' Truly, as Falstaff says, the Doctor 'would
have a sort of alacrity at sinking V
Upon the margin stood the Venus de' Medicis —
' So stands the statue that enchants the world V
' Throw her,' said he, ' into the pond to hide her nakedness, and
to cool her lasciviousness.'
He then, with some difficulty, squeezed himself into a root-
house, when his eye caught the following lines from Parnell : —
' Go search among your idle dreams,
Your busy, or your vain extremes,
And find a life of equal bliss,
Or own the next began in this5.'
The Doctor, however, not possessing any silvan ideas, seemed
not to admit that heaven could be an Arcadia.
1 He wrote to Mrs. Thrale : — n. I. Johnson swam at Oxford
'Mr. 's erection of an urn looks and at Brighton. Ib. i. 348; ante,
like an intention to bury me alive.' i. 224.
Letters, ii. 33. 3 ' You may know by my size that
2 Johnson in his review of Lucas's I have a kind of alacrity in sinking.'
Essay on Waters says:— 'This in- The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act
stance does not prove that the cold iii. sc. 5, 1. 12.
bath produces health, but only that 4 Thomson, Summer, 1. 1346.
it will not always destroy it. He is 5 ' Or own the next begun in this.'
well with the bath, he would have A Hymn to Contentment. Parnell,
been well without it.' Life, i. 91, Aldine Poets, p. 99.
I then
By Mr. Wickins. 429
I then observed him with Herculean strength tugging1 at a nail
which he was endeavouring to extract from the bark of a plum
tree; and having accomplished it, he exclaimed, 'There, Sir,
I have done some good to-day; the tree might have festered.
I make a rule, Sir, to do some good every day of my life.'
Returning through the house, he stepped into a small study
or book-room. The first book he laid his hands upon was
Harwood's Liberal Translation of the New Testament*. The
passage which first caught his eye was from that sublime
apostrophe in St. John, upon the .raising of Lazarus, 'Jesus
wept ; ' which Harwood had conceitedly rendered l and Jesus,
the Saviour of the world, burst into a flood of tears.' He
contemptuously threw the book aside, exclaiming, ' Puppy ! '
I then showed him Sterne's Sermons 2. * Sir,' raid he, c do you
ever read any others ? ' •* Yes, Doctor ; I read Sherlock, Tillot-
son, Beveridge, and others.' ' Ay, Sir, there you drink the cup
of salvation to the bottom ; here you have merely the froth from
the surface.'
Within this room stood the Shakspearean mulberry vase3,
a pedestal given by me to Mr. Garrick, and which was recently
sold, with Mr. Garrick's gems, at Mrs. Garrick's sale at Hampton.
The Doctor read the inscription : —
' SACRED TO SHAKSPEARE,
And in honour of
DAVID GARRICK, ESQ.
The Ornament— the Reformer
Of the British Stage.'
1 By Dr. Edward Harwood. Bos- Sterne's Sermons, said : — 'I did
well describes it as 'a fantastical read them, but it was in a stage-
translation of the New Testament in coach ; I should not have even
modern phrase, and with a Socinian deigned to look at them had I been
twist.' Life, iii. 39. ' I have written,' at large.'
Harwood boasted, ' more books than 3 Johnson often visited at Lich-
any one person now living, except field Mrs. Gastrel, the wife of ' the
Dr. Priestley.' Nichols, Lit. Anec. clergyman who, with Gothick bar-
ix. 580. barity, cut down Shakespeare's mul-
2 See Life, iv. 109, n. i, where berry-tree.' Ib. ii. 470.
Johnson, owning that he had read
<Ay
430 Minor Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson.
1 Ay, Sir ; Davy, Davy loves flattery ; but here, indeed, you
have flattered him as he deserves, paying a just tribute to his
merit V
OF STYAN THIRLBY BY DR. JOHNSON.
[From a copy of the original in the possession of Mr. R. B.
Adam.
These anecdotes were sent by Johnson to John Nichols, who
used them in a brief account of Thirlby, Life, iv. 161, n. 4;
Letters, ii. 276.]
What I can tell of Thirlby, I had from those who knew him.
I never saw him myself.
1. This was an exercise written by him, at the school of the
Rev. Mr. Kilby of Leicester, who preserved it, and by whom his
proficiency was praised as very quick. He went through my
school^ said Mr. Kilby, in three years, and his self-conceit was
censured as very offensive. He thought he knew more than all
the school. Perhaps, said a gentlewoman to whom this was told,
he thought rightly.
2. After Thirlby Js publication of Justin, Dr. Ashton, perhaps
to show him that he had not done all which might have been
done, published in one of the foreign journals some emendations
of faulty passages, which when Thirlby saw he said slightly, that
any man who would, might have made them, and a hundred more.
3. While he was a nominal Physician, he lived some time with
the Duke of Chandos as Librarian, and is reported to have
affected a perverse and insolent independence, so as capriciously
to refuse his company when it was desired. It may be supposed
they were soon weary of each other.
1 ' Here is a man (said Johnson) rick Johnson said, * She is rewarded
who has advanced the dignity of his for it by Garrick.' Life, iii. 293. Mrs.
profession. Garrick has made a Montagu flattered him in her foolish
player a higher character.' Life, iii. Essay on Shakespeare (ib. v. 245),
263 ; ante, ii. 241. and he in turn praised it. Ib. ii.
Of Hannah More's flattery of Gar- 88.
4. He
Of Styan Thirlby by Dr. Johnson. 431
4. He had originally contributed some notes to Theobald's
Shakespeare, and afterwards talked of an edition of his own.
But he went no further than to write some abusive remarks on
the margin of Warburton's Shakespeare with a very few attempts
at emendation, and those perhaps all in the first volume. In the
other volumes he has only with great diligence counted the
lines in every page. When this was told Dr. Jortin, / have
known him, said he, amuse himself with still slighter employment,
he would write down all the proper names that he could call into
his memory. His mind seems to have been tumultuous and
desultory, and he was glad to catch any employment that
might produce attention without anxiety. Such employment,
as Dr. Battie I has observed, is necessary for madmen.
N.B. In his cups he was jealous and quarrelsome. One of
his pupils having been invited by him to supper, happened, as
he was going away, to stumble at a Pile of Justin 2 which lay
on the floor in quires; Thirlby told him that he kicked down the
books in Contempt of the Editor, upon which the Pupil said, it
is now time to go away.
N.B. One of his colloquial topicks was : That Nature ap
parently intended a kind of parity among her sons. Sometimes,
said he, she deviates a little from her general purpose, and sends
into the world a man of powers superior to the rest, of quicker
intuition, and wider comprehension, — this man has all other men
for his enemies, and would not be suffered to live his natural time,
but that his excellences are ballanced by his failings. He that
by intellectual exaltation thus towers above his contemporaries,
is drunken, or lazy, or capricious, or by some defect or other is
hindered from exerting his sovereignty of mind ; he is thus kept
upon the level, and thus preserved from the destruction which
would be the natural consequence of universal hatred.
This is what I can remember.
1 Dr. William Battie published in 2 Thirlby published in 1723 an
1757^4 Treatise on Madness. Gentle- edition of Justin Martyr in folio.
man's Magazine, 1757, p. 605. Ib. 1784, p. 260.
LETTERS OF DR. JOHNSON
VOL. II. F f
LETTERS OF DR. JOHNSON
[The following letters have been brought to my notice since
the publication of my Letters of Samuel Johnson. Most of them,
I believe, are now printed for the first time.]
To [SAMUEL RICHARDSON 'I.
DEAR SIR, toss-]
I have been waiting on you every day and have not done uV
I hear you take subscriptions for your two subsequent volumes.
1 From the original in the posses
sion of Messrs. J. Pearson & Co.,
5 Pall Mall Place, London.
That this letter was written to
Richardson, and in the latter half of
1753, I infer from the following con
siderations : —
In the Gentleman's Magazine for
17S3, P- 543, in the list of books pub
lished in November is ' The History
of Sir Charles Grandison, 4 vols. in
8vo, boards, 17^. ; I2mo, icw. 6^.'
Vol. v. 8vo and vols. v. and vi. I2mo
are in the list for December, p.
593. Vol. vi. 8vo and vol. vii. I2mo
are in the list for March, 1754, p. 144.
The two editions were brought out
simultaneously. In my copy of the
octavo edition ' second edition ' is
added to the title-page of vol. vi ;
in the copy in the British Museum
it appears also in vol. i. The book
F
seems to have been published earlier
than November. Mrs. Carter wrote
on Sept. 21 : — ' Mr. Richardson has
been so good as to send me four
volumes of his most charming work.'
Carter and Talbot Letters, ii. 141.
It is not improbable, however, that
he sent her a copy before publication.
The ' two subsequent volumes '
mentioned by Johnson were, no doubt,
the concluding volumes oi. Sir Charles
Grandison. His next letter shows,
however, that it was the edition in
seven volumes which he had received.
The last three volumes of the edition
in I2mo contain the same matter as
the last two volumes of the edition
in 8vo.
Lord Corke, who 'left his name,'
is mentioned in the next letter as
having seen Johnson or communi
cated with him.
f 2 I beg
436 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
I beg to put my name amongst your other friends. If you favour
me with a few receipts, I will push them.
My Lord Corke did me the honour to leave his name. I went
to Mr. Andrew Millar1 to enquire where he resides, but could
not learn. I am impatient to know.
I am, Sir,
Your most humble servant,
Thursday night. SAM: JOHNSON.
Endorsed from Sam : Johnson.
c To [SAMUEL RICHARDSON 2],
oIR,
I am desired by Miss Williams who has waited several times
upon you without finding you at home, and has been hindered by
an ilness of some weeks from repeating her visits, to return you
her humble thanks for your present. She is likewise desirous to
lay before you the inclosed plan which she has meditated a long
time, and thinks herself able to execute by the help of an
Amanuensis, having long since collected a great number of
volumes on these subjects, which indeed she appears to me to
understand better than any person that I have ever known. She
will however want a few of the late books. She begs that if you
think her dictionary likely to shift for itself in this age of
dictionaries you will be pleased to encourage her by taking some
share of the copy, and using your interest with others to take the
rest, or put her in any way of making the undertaking profitable
to her.
I am extremely obliged by the seventh volume. You have
a trick of laying yourself open to objections, in the first part of
your work, and crushing them in subsequent parts. A great deal
that I had to say before I read the conversation in the latter
part, is now taken from me. / wish however that Sir Charles
had not compromised in 'matters of religion 3.
1 Millar had published Lord 5 Pall Mall Place, London. It was
Corke's Remarks on the Life of lately sold by auction by Messrs.
Swift. Sotheby & Co. for £6 los.
* From the original in the posses- 3 Richardson in 'a concluding note
sion of Messrs. J. Pearson & Co., by the editor* (ed. 1754, vi. 300)
I must
Letters of Dr. Johnson.
437
I must beg leave to introduce to your acquaintance Mr. Adams
under whom I had the honour to perform exercises at Oxford *,
and who has lately recommended himself to the best part of
Mankind by his confutation of Hume on Miracles 2.
My Lord Corke is desirous to see Mr. Falkner's letter to me.
I wish you would find it him, as by my desire, and when it is
returned, take care to keep it for my justification, for I would
not have shewn it, but at his own instigation 3.
says : — ' Many there are who look
upon his offered compromise with
the Porretta family, in allowing the
Daughters of the proposed marriage
to be brought up by the mother,
reserving to himself the Education
of the Sons only, as a blot in the
character.5 To lessen criticism
Richardson supplies * an unlucky
omission ' in one of the letters. Sir
Charles Grandison, vi. 410.
Mrs. Barbauld, in her Memoirs of
Richardson (Clarissa, vol. i. Preface,
p. 41), says: — 'The author valued
himself upon his management of this
nice negotiation ; and, in a letter to
one of his French translators, dex
terously brings it forward as a proof
of his candour and liberality towards
the Catholic religion.'
1 This is no contradiction of the
statement that Adams was only John
son's 'nominal tutor.' Life, i. 79.
The 'exercises 'were often performed
in the hall, no doubt before the
Master and Fellows. Ib. i. 60.
2 'Answering, in the theologic dic
tionary, signifies confuting.' Wai-
pole's Letters, vii. 158.
' Answers (wrote Hume) by Reve
rends and Right Reverends came out
two or three in a year.' Letters of
Hume to Strahan, Preface, p. 24.
' Dr. Adams told me he had once
dined in company with Hume in
London ; that Hume shook hands
with him, and said, " You have
treated me much better than I de
serve." ' Life, ii. 441.
3 Ireland was first brought under
the Copyright Act by the 41 Geo.
Ill, c. 107. Letters of Hume to
Strahan, p. 176. Gibbon suffered
from ' the pirates of Dublin.' Misc.
Works, i. 223. Boswell's Life of
Johnson was reprinted in Dublin in
1792 in 3 vols. 8vo. George Faulkner,
the famous Dublin bookseller, was
by agreement with Richardson to
print and publish Sir Charles
Grandison before it was published in
London. Only a few sheets had been
sent over, when Richardson found
out that some booksellers in Dublin
had bribed his servants to steal and
send them copies of almost the whole
work. Faulkner at once shared in
the plunder. ' He also wrote letters
to several persons of character in
London, endeavouring to justify him
self, without having that strict regard
to veracity in them which becomes
a man of business.' Richardson
mentions his letter to Johnson as
* this strange, this inconsistent, this
misrepresenting Letter of yours to
Mr ' Sir Charles Grandison,
vi. pp. 412-433 ; Gentleman's Maga
zine, 1753, p. 465. Lord Corke was
the fifth Earl, often mentioned in
Boswell as Lord Orrery. For George
Faulkner, see Life, v. 44; Letters,
i. 13. See/<w/, p. 442.
I cannot
438 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
I cannot conclude without recommending Miss Williams' s little
business to you. She is certainly qualified for her work, as much
as any one that will ever undertake it, as she understands chimistry
and many other arts with which Ladies are seldom acquainted,
and I shall endeavour to put her and her helpmate into method.
I can truly say that she deserves all the encouragement that can
be given her, far a being more pure from any thing vicious I have
never known. j
Sir,
Your most obliged
and
most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Endorsed Mr. Johnson and Miss W.'s Plan.
28 March, 1754.
To [SAMUEL RICHARDSON II.
DEAR SIR,
If you have any part of the universal History2 yet unengaged,
there [is] a Gentleman desirous of giving his assistance. To
recommend authours is dangerous, I have therefore sent you his
Book [which] I think sets him on a level with most of those who
are at present employed. I do not know him, but the Gentleman
to whom he dedicates informs me that he is diligent and per
severing. His Patron will be answerable for any books put
into his hands, and perhaps for money if any be advanced,
but no request of money has been made to me. [I have said
nothing to Mr. Millar 3 for who should judge of an authour but
you?] If you approve him you will therefore please to introduce
him so as that no offence be given.
1 From the original in the posses- Universal History, see Letters, ii.
sion of Messrs. J. Pearson & Co., 432 ; ante, i. 445.
5 Pall Mall Place, London. 3 Andrew Millar, the bookseller,
The letter is not addressed, but it ' the Maecenas of the age,' as Johnson
can scarcely be doubted that it was called him. Ante, ii. 5. The brackets
written to Richardson. in which this paragraph is enclosed
2 For a list of the writers of the are in the original.
I am
Letters of Dr. Johnson. 439
I am in no great haste for an Answer. You may look into the
book at leisure, for I do not expect that you should catch [at] it
with the eagerness with which the world catches at yours x.
I am,
Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Feb. 3, 1755.
Pray favour me with an account of the translations of Clarissa
which you have, I have a desire to borrow some of them 2.
To [? GEORGE HAYS, ESQ., D.C.L.].
SIR,
I should not have easily prevailed upon myself to trouble
a Person in your high station with a request, had I not observed
that Men have commonly benevolence in proportion to their
capacities, and that the most extensive minds are most open
to solicitation.
I had a Negro Boy named Francis Barber, given me by
a Friend4 whom I much respect, and treated by me for some
1 Johnson, writing to Richardson On his second flight Johnson sought
about Clarissa, said : — ' Though the Smollett's aid in procuring his dis-
story is long every letter is short.' charge from the navy which he had
Letters ; i. 21. entered. Smollett applied to Wilkes.
2 'Johnson, when he carried Mr. 'Mr. Wilkes (writes Boswell), who
Langton to see Richardson, professed upon all occasions has acted, as a
that he could bring him out into private gentleman, with most polite
conversation, and used this allusive liberality, applied to his friend Sir
expression, " Sir, I can make him George Hay, then one of the Lords
rear." But he failed ; for in that in- Commissioners of the Admiralty; and
terview Richardson said little else Francis Barber was discharged, as
than that there lay in the room a he has told me, without any wish of
translation of his Clarissa into Ger- his own.' Life, i. 348.
man.' Life, iv. 28. It is most likely that it was to Sir
3 From the original in the posses- George Hay, at that time Dr. Hay,
sion of Mr. R. B. Adam of Buffalo. that this letter was written.
Francis Barber had run away from 4 Dr. Bathurst. ' Barber was born
Johnson's service three years earlier in Jamaica, and was brought to
than the date of this letter, but had re- England in 1750 by Colonel Bathurst,
turned. Life, i. 239, n. ; Letters, i. 66. father of Johnson's very intimate
years
440 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
years with great tenderness. Being disgusted in the house he
ran away to sea, and was in the Summer on board the ship
stationed at Yarmouth to protect the fishery.
It [would] be a great pleasure and some convenience to me,
if the Lords of the Admiralty would be pleased to discharge
him, which as he is no seaman, may be done with little injury
to the King's service.
You were pleased, Sir, to order his discharge in the Spring
at the request of Mr. Wilkes, but I left London about that time
and received no advantage from your favour. I therefore pre
sume to entreat that you will repeat your order, and inform me
how to cooperate with it so that it may be made effectual x.
I shall take the liberty of waiting at the Admiralty next
Tuesday for your answer. I hope my request is not such as
it is necessaiy to refuse, and what it is not necessary to refuse,
I doubt not but your humanity will dispose you to grant, even
to one that can make no higher pretensions to your favour, than,
Sir,
Your most obedient
and
Most humble Servant,
Gray's Inn2, SAM: JOHNSON.
November the 9th, 1759.
_ ~ To THE REV. THOMAS PERCY3.
I should not think our visit an event so important as to
require any previous Notification, but that Mrs. Williams tells
me, such was your desire4. We purpose to set out on Monday
friend, Dr. Bathurst. The Colonel * According to Croker it was not
by his will left him his freedom, and till June of the following year that he
Dr. Bathurst was willing that he was discharged. Ib. i. 350 n.
should enter into Johnson's service.' 2 Letters^ i. 88.
Life,\. 239*1. ; ante, i. 391. According 3 From the original in the posses-
to Lord Mansfield's decision Barber sion of Mr. R. B. Adam, of Buffalo,
had become free the moment he New York.
landed in England, but it was not 4 Johnson declined an invitation to
till 1772 that this decision was given. visit Percy in September, 1761, as he
Life, iii, 87 n. wished to see the coronation. Letters,
morning
Letters of Dr. Johnson. 441
morning in the Berlin1 in which we could not get places last
week, and hope to have the honour in the evening 2 of telling you
and Mrs. Percy that we are,
Your humble Servants,
London, June 23, 1764. SAM. JOHNSON.
CTT> To DR- PERCY. r_. . A .,
SIR, [Undated.]
I have sent you home a parcel of books, and do not know
that I now retain any except Gongora3 and Araucana4. If you
can spare Amadis please to return it to,
Sir,
Your most humble,
To the Reverend Dr. Percy. SAM = JOHNSON '"
DEAR SIR, To THE REV" EDWARD LYE''
I see little to change in your proposals, only for 'writing
demy I would read as more generally intelligible writing paper,
1.91. For his visit in 1764,866 Life, 4 * Araucana. A heroic poem in
i. 486, and ante, ii. p. 217. 37 Cantos, by the Spanish poet Alonso
1 ' I fixed my eye upon a small de Ercilla.' Id.
carriage Berlin fashion, which seemed 5 ' Dr. Percy informs me that
the most convenient vehicle at a " when a boy he (Johnson) was im-
distance in the world.' Goldsmith's moderately fond of reading romances
Misc. Works, ed. 1801, iv. 225. 'An of chivalry, and he retained his fond-
old-fashioned four-wheeled covered ness for them through life ; so that
carriage with a seat behind covered (adds his Lordship) spending part of
with a hood.' New Eng. Diet. a summer at my parsonage-house in
2 Easton Mauduit, Percy's Vicar- the country, he chose for his regular
age, is in Northamptonshire, about reading the old Spanish romance of
58 miles from London. Paterson's Fdixmarte of Hircania, in folio,
Itinerary, 1800, i. 384. which he read quite through." ' Life,
3 ' Luis de Gongora y Argote (1561- i. 48.
1627). A Spanish lyric poet, noted 6 From the original in the posses-
as the founder of a highly meta- sion of Messrs. J.Pearson & Co. John-
physical and artificial style from him son wrote to Boswell on March 9,
named " Gongorism," and also called 1766: — 'Mr. Lye is printing his Saxon
the " polished," " polite," and "cul- and Gothick Dictionary; all THE
tivated" style.' The Century Cy do- CLUB subscribes.' Life, ii. 17. See
pedia of Names. Letters, i. 121.
and
442 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
and I would stop at a sufficient number of Subscribers. What is
added being, in my opinion, rather deficient in dignity.
The success of your subscription I do not doubt, and wish you
were closely engaged at the press. Two sheets of Saxon letters
will not be sufficient, there ought always to be one sheet printing,
another in your hands for correction, and a third composing.
There ought to be more, but this is the least, and if at Oxford
they will not do this, you must not print at Oxford ; for your
Edition will be retarded beyond measure. They must get four
sheets of letter at least, which will cost very little, there being
few peculiar characters.
Stipulate with the printer to give you a certain number of
sheets weekly, you ought not to have less than three, and you
will not easily have more.
Miss Williams sends her best compliments to you and to
Mrs. Calvert, and begs that you will return her thanks to
Mrs. Percy for her letter, in the contents of which she takes
great interest.
The Hare will come safe if it be directed to,
Sir,
Your most humble Servant,
Johnson's Court, Fleet-street, SAM: JOHNSON.
Sept. 26, 1765.
To the Reverend Mr. Lye,
at Yardley, near Castle Ashby, Northamptonshire.
~ To [WILLIAM STRAHAN P1].
I will tell you in a few words, what is, in my opinion, the
most desirable state of Copyright or literary Property 2.
1 From the original in the posses- son gave his correspondent his
sion of Mr. R. B. Adam of Buffalo. opinion on copyright Strahan con-
I have two reasons for the belief suited Hume and Robertson on the
that this letter was written to W. same question. Their answers, with
Strahan. In the first place, at the letters of other authors, were used
time when it was sold by auction by counsel before the House of
(July, 1886) a large collection of Lords on May 13. Letters of Hume
letters written to Strahan was getting to Strahan, pp. 274, 278, 284.
dispersed. In the second place, in 2 Hume wrote to Strahan : — ' I
the spring of the year in which John- have writ you an ostensible Letter
The
Letters of Dr. Johnson.
443
The Authour has a natural and peculiar right to the1 profits of
his own work x.
But as every Man who claims the protection of Society, must
on the subject of literary Property,
which contains my real Sentiments,
so far as it goes. However, I shall
tell you the truth ; I do not foresee
any such bad Consequences as you
mention from laying the Property
open. The Italians and French have
more pompous Editions of their
Classics since the Expiration of the
Privileges than any we have of ours :
And at least every Bookseller who
prints a Book will endeavour to
make it as compleat and correct as
he can.' Letters of Hume, p. 274.
The following is an abridgement of
my notes on this letter : — ' On Feb.
22, 1774, a decision was given in the
House of Lords on the question of
literary property or copyright, by
which, to use the words of the
Annual Register (XVll.'i. 9$), "Near
^200,000 worth of what was honestly
purchased at public sale, and which
was yesterday thought property, is
now reduced to nothing. The English
booksellers have now no other security
in future for any literary purchases
they may make but the statute of the
8th of Queen Anne, which secures to
the author's assigns an exclusive
property for 14 years, to revert again
to the author, and vest in him for 14
years more." The works of Shake
speare, Milton, Dryden, Bunyan,
Locke, had hitherto been copyright.
Boswell, under date of July 20, 1763,
tells how Donaldson, an Edinburgh
bookseller, * had for some years
opened a shop in London, and sold
his cheap editions of the most popular
English books, in defiance of the
supposed common-law right of Lite
rary Property/ Life, i. 437. The
booksellers got a verdict against him
in 1769 in the Court of King's Bench,
but the judgement, upon an appeal
from a decree of the Court of Chan
cery founded on it, was reversed by
the House of Lords on Feb. 22, 1774.
A copyright Bill in protection of the
booksellers was the same session
carried through the House of Com
mons, but it was lost in the House of
Lords. The London booksellers pro
tected themselves by an 'honorary
copyright, which/ wrote Boswell in
1791, ' is still preserved among them
by mutual compact.' Ib. iii. 370. See
also ib. i. 437 ; ii. 272.
1 ' There is (writes Blackstone) still
another species of property, which (if
it subsists) being grounded on labour
and invention, is more properly re
ducible to the head of occupancy than
any other.' Commentaries, ed. 1775,
ii. 405. It is this view which Johnson
attacked when he said : — ' There
seems to be in authours a stronger
right of property than that by occu
pancy ; a metaphysical right, a right,
as it were, of creation, which should
from its nature be perpetual ; but
the consent of nations is against it,
and indeed reason and the interests
of learning are against it/ &c. Life,
ii. 259. Lord Camden attacked * the
metaphysical refinements ' which were
brought into the arguments. Meta
physics * lent its artful aid ' to both
sides. ' It has/ said Mr. Justice
Aston, 'been ingeniously, meta
physically, and subtilly argued on the
part of the defendant, "That there
is a want of property in the thing
itself" ' Letters of Hume, p. 279.
Blackstone says that ' it is urged that
the right is of too subtile and unsub
stantial a nature to become the sub
ject of property at the common law.'
See also ante, i. 382 n. ; ii. 437 n.
purchase
444 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
purchase it by resigning some part of his natural right1, the
authour must recede from so much of his claim as shall be
deemed injurious or inconvenient to Society.
It is inconvenient to Society that an useful book should
become perpetual and exclusive property.
The Judgement of the Lords was therefore legally and politi
cally right.
But the authours enjoyment of his natural right might without
any inconvenience be protracted beyond the term settled by the
Statute. And it is, I think, to be desired
1. That an Authour should retain during his life the sole right
of printing and selling his work.
This is agreeable to moral right, and not inconvenient to the
publick, for who will be so diligent as the authour to improve the
book, and who can know so well how to improve it ?
2. That the authour be allowed, as by the present act, to
alienate his right only for fourteen years.
A shorter time would not procure a sufficient price, and
a longer would cut off all hope of future profit, and consequently
all solicitude for correction or addition.
3. That when after fourteen years the copy shall revert to
the authour, he be allowed to alienate it again only for seven
years at a time.
After fourteen years the value of the work will be known,
and it will be no longer bought at hazard. Seven years of
possession will therefore have an assignable price. It is proper
that the authour be always incited to polish and improve his
work, by that prospect of accruing interest which those shorter
periods of alienation will afford.
4. That after the authours death his work should continue
an exclusive property capable of bequest and inheritance, and
of conveyance by gift or sale for thirty years.
By these regulations a book may continue the property of
1 * A man (said Johnson) is bound society, gives up a part of his natural
to submit to the inconveniences of liberty, as the price of so valuable
society as he enjoys the good.' Life, a purchase.' Blackstone's Commen-
v. 87. taries, ed. 1775, i. 125.
' Every man, when he enters into
the
Letters of Dr. Johnson.
445
the authour, or of those who claim from him, about fifty years,
a term sufficient to reward the writer without any loss to the
publick. In fifty years far the greater number of books are
forgotten and annihilated, and it is for the advantage of learning
that those which fifty years have not destroyed should become
bona communia, to be used by every Scholar as he shall
think best1.
In fifty years every book begins to require notes either to
explain forgotten allusions and obsolete words ; or to subjoin
those discoveries which have been made by the gradual ad
vancement of knowledge; or to correct those mistakes which
time may have discovered1.
Such Notes cannot be written to any useful purpose without
1 Johnson, arguing this question
in 1763, was for granting authors
a hundred years of exclusive right.
Life, i. 439. In 1773 he said: —
' The consent of nations is against it
[a perpetual copyright], and indeed
reason and the interests of learning
are against it ; for were it to be per
petual, no book, however useful, could
be universally diffused amongst man
kind, should the proprietor take it
into his head to restrain its circula
tion. No book could have the ad
vantage of being edited with notes,
however necessary to its elucidation,
should the proprietor perversely op
pose it. For the general good of the
world, therefore, whatever valuable
work has once been created by an
authour, and issued out by him,
should be understood as no longer in
his power, but as belonging to the
publick ; at the same time the authour
is entitled to an adequate reward.
This he should have by an exclusive
right to his work for a considerable
number of years.' Life, ii. 259.
By the present law copyright lasts
for the life of the author and seven
years afterwards, or for forty-two
years, whichever is the longer period.
Carlyle in his petition to the House
of Commons asked for sixty years.
'After sixty years, unless your
Honourable House provide other
wise, they [extraneous persons] may
begin to steal.' Miss Martineau's
Thirty Years' Peace, ed. 1850, ii.
547-
Macaulay, opposing this period,
said : — ' Dr. Johnson died fifty-six
years ago. If the law were what my
honourable and learned friend wishes
to make it, somebody would now
have the monopoly of Dr. Johnson's
works. Who that somebody would
be it is impossible to say ; but we
may venture to guess. I guess then
that it would have been some book
seller, who was the assign of another
bookseller, who was the grandson of
a third bookseller, who had bought
the copyright from Black Frank,
the doctor's servant and residuary
legatee, in 1785 or 1786.' Macaulay's
Misc. Writings, ed. 1871, p. 612.
1 'Johnson talked with approbation
of an intended edition of The Spec
tator, with notes. . . . He observed
that all works which describe manners
require notes in sixty or seventy
years, or less.' Life, ii. 211.
the
446 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
the text, and the text will frequently be refused while it is
any man's property.
I am,
Sir,
Your humble Servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
March 7, 1774.
To JAMES MACPHERSON'.
MR. JAMES MACPHERSON,— I received your foolish and im
pudent note. Whatever insult is offered me I will do my best to
repel, and what I cannot do for myself the law will do for me.
I will not desist from detecting what I think a cheat from any
fear of the menaces of a Ruffian.
You want me to retract. What shall I retract? I thought
your book an imposture from the beginning, I think it upon yet
surer reasons an imposture still. For this opinion I give the
publick my reasons which I here dare you to refute.
But however I may despise you, I reverence truth, and if you
can prove the genuineness of the work I will confess it. Your
rage I defy, your abilities since your Homer are not so formidable,
and what I have heard of your morals disposes me to pay regard
not to what you shall say, but what you can prove.
You may print this if you will.
SAM: JOHNSON.
Jan. 20, 1775.
To Mr. James Macpherson.
1 This copy of Johnson's letter to ' MR. JAMES MACPHERSON,
Macpherson I owe to the kindness of ' I received your foolish and im-
Mrs. Archer-Hind of Little Newn- pudent letter. Any violence offered
ham, Cambridge, who possesses a me I shall do my best to repel ;
tracing of the original made by her and what I cannot do for myself, the
father, the late Mr. Lewis Pocock. law shall do for me. I hope I never
At the sale of Mr. Pocock's auto- shall be deterred from detecting what
graphs, on May 10, 1875, the original I think a cheat, by the menaces of
fetched ,£50. Letters, i. 307. a ruffian.
The copy printed in the Life, ii. * What would you have me retract ?
298, was dictated to Boswell by John- I thought your book an imposture;
son from memory. It runs as fol- I think it an imposture still. For
lows : — this opinion I have given my reasons
To
Letters of Dr. Johnson. 447
DEAR SIR,
On Monday I purpose to be at Oxford, where I shall
perhaps stay a week, from whence I shall come to Birmingham,
and so to Lichfield. At Lichfield my purpose is to pass a week
or so, but whether I shall stay there in my way to Ashbourne, or
in [returning] from it, you may, if you please, determine. When
I come thither I will write to you or perhaps I may find a letter
at Mrs. Porter's.
I am,
Sir,
Your affectionate servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
May 27, 1775
DEAR SIR,
I was sorry, and so was Mr. Boswel3, that we were sum
moned away so soon 4. Our effort of travelling in the Evening
was useless. We did not get home till Friday morning. Mrs.Thrale
and her girl are gone to Bath 5. The blow was very heavy
upon them.
The Expedition however still proceeds 6, so that I shall be but
a short time here. If Mr. Langdon will be so kind as to send
to the publick, which I here dare you £6 i$s. on April 8, 1891. Letters,
to refute. Your rage I defy. Your i. 387.
abilities, since your Homer, are not 3 In the Preface to the Letters of
so formidable; and what I hear of Johnson (p. 15) I have pointed out
your morals inclines me to pay re- that Johnson always wrote his friend's
gard, not to what you shall say, but name Boswel. Boswell's father fol-
to what you shall prove. You may lowed this spelling, as was shown
print this if you will. when the Auchinleck Library was
SAM. JOHNSON.' dispersed. In many of the books
1 From the original in the Buffalo was inscribed Alex. Boswel.
Library. 4 They were summoned to London
For his trip to the Midland Coun- on the sudden death of Mr. Thrale's
ties this summer, see Letters, i. 323- son. Life, ii. 468 ; iii. I.
365. * Ante, ii. 295 ; Life, iii. 6.
2 -From the original in the posses- 6 To Italy. Life, iii. 6. It was
sion of Mr. R. B. Adam of Buffalo. given up a few days later. Ib. iii. 27.
This letter was sold by auction for Ante, i. 263.
the
448 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
the barley J next week, I can deliver [it] to Boswel. I wish he
would [put] a peck more in a separate bag, for I would not
break the main bulk, and yet I cannot well help it, unless I have
a little more.
Mr. Boswel is in the room 2, and sends his respects. Let me
know whether you design to come hither before I am to go,
and if you come we will contrive to pass a few hours
together.
I am,
Sir,
Your most humble Servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
No. 8, Bolt Court, Fleet street (not Johnson's Court 3).
Apr. 4, 1776.
To the Reverend Dr. Taylor, in Ashbourn, Derbyshire.
TO MISS REYNOLDS4.
DEAREST MADAM,
When you called on Mrs. Thrale, I find by enquiry that
she was really abroad, the same thing happenned \_sic\ to
Mrs. Montague, of which I beg you to inform her, for she went
likewise by my opinion. The Denial, if it had been feigned,
would not have pleased me. Your visits however are kindly
paid and very kindly taken 5.
1 Mr. Langdon is mentioned the nolds of Oct. 27, 1763 (Ib. i. no), as
following year as buying ' fifteen tun printed by Croker, ends : — ' Most
of cheese at Nottingham fair.' Letters, sincerely yours.' I suspected the
ii. 45. Johnson wrote from Ash- word sincerely for I had never known
bourne in July, 1775 : — 'We talk here it thus used by Johnson. By Lady
of Polish oats and Siberian barley... Colomb's kindness I have seen the
I intend to procure specimens of original. The word is not clear, but
both, which we will try in some spots I believe it is zealously.
of our own ground.' Ib. i. 352. s Mrs. Thrale had lost her only
2 Life, iii. 17. son eleven days earlier. Johnson
3 He had lately removed from wrote to Miss Reynolds on the
Johnson's Court. Ib. ii. 427. nth:— 'A visit from you will be
4 From the original in the posses- well taken I am sure that it
sion of Lady Colomb. The first will be thought seasonable and kind,
paragraph has been long in print, and I wish you not to omit it.'
Letters, i. 391. Ib. i. 389.
Johnson's letter to Miss Rey-
Pray
Letters of Dr. Johnson. 449
Pray tell Sir Joshua that I have examined Mr. Thrale's
Man1, and find no foundation for the story of the Alehouse
and mulled Beer. He was at the play two nights before, with
one of the chief men in the Brewhouse, and came home at
the regular time. This, I believe, is true, for Mrs. Thrale
told me that she had sent him to his friend Murphy's play2,
and if there had been [anything] to be told, I should then have
heard it.
We are going to Bath this morning, but I could not part
without telling you the real state of your visit.
I am,
dearest Madam,
Your most humble Servant,
SAM. JOHNSON.
Apr. 15, 1776.
TO MISS REYNOLDS3.
MY DEAREST DEAR,
When I am grown better, which is, I hope, at no great
distance, for I mend gradually, we will make a little time to
ourselves, and look over your dear little production, and try
1 Samuel Greaves, who after Mr. 279 n. In his letter to her of April 8,
Thrale's death kept the Essex Head, 1782, as printed in the Letters, ii.
where Johnson's last club met. Life, 249, from Croker's Boswell, is the
iv. 253 ; ante, i. no n. following passage :—
2 Murphy's Three Weeks after * Your system of the mental fabric
Marriage, which under the title of is exceedingly obscure, and without
What -we must all come to had been more attention than will be willingly
hissed off the stage in 1764, was re- bestowed is unintelligible. The plans
vived on March 30, 1776, and was of Burnaby will be more safely under-
successful. Diet. Nat. Biog. stood, and are often charming. I
3 From a copy of the original in the was delighted with the different
possession of Lady Colomb. bounty of different ages/
Mr. Johnson was recovering from In the copy of the original sent
the gout. On June 3 he wrote : — me by Lady Colomb the last para-
' I receive ladies and dismiss them graph runs : — ' The Ideas of Beauty
sitting. — Painful pre-eminence' Let- will be more easily understood, and
ters, \. 403. are often charming. I am delighted
He more than once corrected Miss with the different beauty of different
Keynolds's productions. Ante, ii. ages.'
VOL. II. G g to
450 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
to make it such as we may both like. I will not forget it, nor
neglect it, for I love your tenderness.
I am,
Dear Madam,
Your most humble Servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
June 15, 1776.
TO MlSS REYNOLDS1.
DEAR MADAM,
I want no company but yours nor wish for any other. I will
wait on you on Saturday, and am so well that I am very
able to find my way without a carriage.
I am,
Dear Madam,
Your most humble Servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Oct. 21 [1779].
TO [LUCY PORTER2].
DEAR MADAM,
I have inclosed Mr. Boswels answer.
I still continue better than when you saw me, but am not
just at this time very well, but hope to mend again. Publick
affairs remain as they were. Do not let the papers fright you 3.
I have ordered you some oisters this week, which I hope you
1 From a copy of the original in her as well as I could.' Ib. ii. 116.
the possession of Lady Colomb. Tuesday was the 26th ; so that it
On Oct. 25 Johnson wrote to Mrs. was Miss Reynolds's little head which
Thrale :— ' On Saturday I walked was beginning to settle,
to Dover-street [Miss Reynolds's 2 From the original in the posses-
lodging] and back I am to dine sion of Messrs. J. Pearson & Co.,
with Renny [Miss Reynolds] to- 5 Pall Mall Place, London. Part of
morrow.' Letters, ii. 113. On Oct. this letter is given in the Letters, ii.
28 he wrote to Mrs. Thrale:— 'I 129. It is not addressed, but it was
dined on Tuesday with , and written to Johnson's step-daughter,
hope her little head begins to settle. Lucy Porter. See ib. n. i and Life,
She has, however, some scruples iii. 41 7-
about the company of a lady whom 3 There was fear of an invasion,
she has lately known. I pacified Ante, i. 203 ; Letters, ii. 109, 120.
will
Letters of Dr. Johnson. 451
will get, though your oisters have sometimes miscarried \ Write
when you can. T
1 am,
My dear,
Your humble servant,
Dec. 2, 1779. SAM: JOHNSON.
To [THE REV. — ALLEN 2].
SIR, [1780.]
Mr. William Shaw, the gentleman from whom you will
receive this, is a studious and literary man ; he is a stranger, and
will be glad to be introduced into proper company ; and he is
my friend, and any civility you shall shew him will be an
obligation on, gjr
Your most obedient servant,
SAM. JOHNSON.
TO MISS THRALE3.
DEAREST LOVE, [Winter of 1782-3.]
I am engaged to dinner to morrow, of which I forgot
1 Johnson sent her oysters the 3 From the original in the posses-
following spring. Letter -s, ii. 134. sion of Mr. R. B. Adam of Buffalo. It
2 From the original in the posses- was sold by auction on Feb. 28,
sion of Mr. R, B. Adam of Buffalo. 1893, for ^3 5^.
First published in Memoirs of the Johnson wrote to Boswell on Dec.
Life and Writings of Dr. Johnson, 7, 1782:— 'Mrs. Thrale and the
1785, p. 156, where it is stated that three Misses are now for the winter
'upon Mr. Shaw's going to settle in in Argyll-street.' Ib. iv. 157. Bos-
Kent in 1780 as a curate, the Doctor well found him there in March, 1783.
wrote this letter to Mr. Allen, the Ib. p. 164. Miss Thrale was John-
Vicar of St. Nicholas, Rochester, in son's Queeney. Ib. iii. 422. She
his favour.' Mr. Shaw published a married Admiral Viscount Keith.
Gaelick Grammar and Dictionary. Letters •, i. 133, n. I. On Nov. 12,
He also published two pamphlets 1781, Johnson wrote to her mother: —
on the Ossian controversy. See ' I have a mind to look on Queeney
Lowndes's Bibl. Man. ed. 1871, p. as my own dear girl.' Ib. ii. 234.
1738. He sometimes complains of her neg-
In 1777 Johnson tried to get him lect. He wrote, during an illness, on
appointed chaplain 'to one of the Dec. 20, 1782: — 'Queeney never
new-raised regiments.' Lifey iii. 214 ; sent me a kind word.' Ib. ii. 279 ;
iv. 252. on July 5, 1783 :— ' I think Queeney's
G g % to
452 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
to tell you, but I hope you will favour me with a call early on
Wednesday.
I am, dearest,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Monday, I7th.
To Miss Thrale, No. 37, Argyle Street.
Monday, nine in the morning.
TO DR. TAYLOR1.
DEAR SIR,
I am sorry to hear that you are not well. I have had a very
troublesome night myself. I fancy the Weather may hurt us,
if that is the case, we may hope for better health as the year
advances.
I had a letter last night from Mr. Langley2, which I will
shew you to morrow ; which will I believe incline you to doubt
Mr. Flint's veracity 3, yet I believe it will be best for the Girls
to take the money offered them, but you shall consider it to
morrow.
I am,
Sir,
Your, &c.
SAM: JOHNSON.
I shall come to morrow early in the evening.
March 2, 1782.
To the Reverend Doctor Taylor.
Endorsed in another hand, 2 March, 1782.
silence has something either of lazi- Russell Street, London,
ness or unkindness.' Letters > ii. 316; 2 The head master of Ashbournfc
on March 16, 1784, ' Miss Thrale Grammar School. Ib. iii. 138.
rather neglects me.' Ib. ii. 384 ; on 3 Mr. Flint had married a widow,
June 26, 1784: — 'My dear girls seem Mrs. Collier, who had brought him,
all to forget me.' Ib. ii. 404. They Johnson thought, about ^200 a year,
had troubles of their own with She was dead, and he apparently
their mother's second marriage. was trying to keep from her daughters
Queeney visited him in his last ill- by her first husband a part of her
ness. Life, iv. 339, n. 3. property which they claimed. See
1 From the original in the posses- Letters, ii. 263, 269, 270, 278, 280,
sion of Mr. S. J. Davey, 47 Great 282.
To
Letters of Dr. Johnson. 453
To THE REV. JAMES CoMPTON1.
SIR,
Your business, I suppose, is in a way of as easy progress
as such business ever has. It is seldom that event keeps pace
with expectation.
The scheme of your book I cannot say that I fully comprehend.
I would not have you ask less than an hundred guineas, for it
seems a large octavo. Go to Mr. Davies in Russel Street 2, shew
him this letter, and shew him the book if he desires to see it.
He will tell you what hopes you may form, and to what Book
seller you should apply.
If you succeed in selling your book, you may do better than
by dedicating it to me. You may perhaps obtain permission
to dedicate it to the Bishop of London, or to Dr. Vyse3,
and make way by your book to more advantage than I can
procure you.
Please to tell Mrs. Williams that I grow better, and that I wish
to know how she goes on. You, Sir, may write for her to,
Sir,
Your most humble Servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Oct. 24, 1782.
To the Reverend Mr. Compton. To be sent to Mrs. Williams.
TO MISS REYNOLDS4.
DEAR MADAM,
Instead of having me at your table, which cannot, I fear,
1 From the facsimile in Scribner's His book, it seems, was never pub-
Magazine, September, 1894, p. 344 ; lished. There is no mention of it
published also in Underbrush by in the Catalogue of the British
James T. Fields, Boston, $th ed., p. 1 7. Museum, or of him in the Dictionary
Mr. Fields found this letter in a of National Biography.
copy of Rasselas purchased at a 2 Ante, i. 427 ; ii. 61.
second-hand bookshop. 3 Rector of Lambeth. Letters, ii.
For an account of Compton, whom 14.
Johnson had known in Paris as a 4 From the original in the posses-
Benedictine monk, see Letters, ii. sion of Messrs. J. Pearson £ Co.,
271, 290. S P^1 Mal1 Place> London.
quickly
454 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
quickly happen, come, if you can, to dine this day with me.
It will give pleasure to a sick friend T.
I am,
Madam,
Yours affectionately,
Oct. 23, 1783. SAM: J°HNSON-
To Mrs. Reynolds2.
TO MR. SASTRES3.
SIR,
I am very much displeased with myself for my negligence
on Monday. I had totally forgotten my engagement to you
and Mr. , for which I desire you to make my apologies to
Mr. , and tell him that if he will give me leave to repay his
visit, I will take the first opportunity of waiting on him.
I am,
Sir,
Your most humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
April 25, [1784.]
April 26, Evening.
To Mr. Sastres, at Mr. Bookseller in Mortimer Street4, Oxford Road.
To GRIFFITH TONES s.
SIR,
You are accustomed to consider Advertisements, and to
observe what stile has most effect upon the Publick. I shall
1 He had written to her on Albany, New York, forwarded to me
Oct. I : — ' I am very ill indeed To by Professor Lounsbury of Yale, who
my other afflictions is added soli- informs me that the blanks in the
tude.' Letters, ii. 337. On the 27th letter stand for a name that has been
he wrote to Mrs. Thrale : — ' I have most carefully obliterated.
now neither pain nor sickness. ... 4 Johnson wrote to Sastres on
But I am very solitary.' Ib. p. 345. August 21, 1784 : — ' I am glad that
2 Miss Reynolds, who was fifty- a letter has at last reached you ;
four years old, in accordance with what became of the two former, which
the common custom, was now digni- were directed to Mortimer instead
fied as Mrs. Reynolds. Ib. i. 367, of Margaret-street, I have no means
n. 4. of knowing.' Ib. ii. 414.
3 From a copy of the original in 5 From the European Magazine
the possession of Mr. Thacher of for September, 1798, p. 163.
think
Letters of Dr. Johnson.
455
think it a favour if you will be pleased to take the trouble
of digging twelve lines of common sense out of this strange
scribble, and insert it three times in The Daily Advertiser, at
the expence of, gjr
Your humble servant,
SAM: JOHNSON.
Oct. 9.
Please to return me the paper.
To Miss REYNOLDS,
Enclosing a letter to be sent in her name to Sir Joshua Reynolds x.
DEAR BROTHER, [Undated.]
I know that complainers are never welcome yet you must
allow me to complain of your unkindness, because it lies heavy
1 From the original in the posses
sion of Lady Colomb.
Miss Reynolds for many years kept
house for her brother. Northcote, in
1771, writing to his brother during
Reynolds's absence from home,
says : — ' He never writes to her, and,
between ourselves, I believe but sel
dom converses as we used to do in
our family. I found she knew no
thing of his having invited me to be
his scholar and live in the house till
I told her of it. She has the com
mand of the household and the ser
vants as much as he has.' He knew
that Johnson had written a letter in
her name, which, he said, must have
been detected from the diction. It
began : — * I am well aware that
complaints are always odious, but
complain I must.' As it is unlikely
that Johnson wrote two letters North-
cote's memory was too weak or his
imagination too strong to give a
correct report.
Her character was the opposite of
her brother's. Mme. D'Arblay de
scribes her as ' living in an habitual
.perplexity of mind and irresolution
of conduct, which to herself was rest
lessly tormenting, and to all around
her was teasingly wearisome.' She
describes ' her excessive oddness and
absurdity.' After leaving her brother's
house she returned to Devonshire.
' In a rough draft of one of her letters
she says : — "The height of my desire
is to be able to spend a few months
in the year near the arts and sciences,
but if you think that it will rather
bring my character in question, for
my brother to be in London, and
I not at his house, I will content
myself with residing at Windsor." '
In the end she lodged with Hoole,
the translator of Ariosto. North-
cote's Reynolds, i. 203 ; Taylor's Rey
nolds, i. 91, 416; Mme. D'Arblay's
Diary, ii. 219.
Reynolds seems to have had but
little sympathy with his sisters. Lady
Colomb has the original of the fol
lowing letter written to him by one
of them : —
' Thy soul is a shocking spectacle
of poverty. When thy outside is, as
at
456 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
at my heart and because I am not conscious that I ever deserved
it. I have not perhaps been always careful enough to please but
you can charge me, and I can charge myself with no offence
which a Brother may not forgive.
If you ask me what I suffer from you, I can answer that
I suffer too much in the loss of your notice ; but to that is
added the neglect of the world which is the consequence of yours.
If you ask what will satisfy me, I shall be satisfied with such
a degree of attention when I visit you, as may set me above the
contempt of your servants, with your calling now and then at my
lodgings and with your inviting me from time to time with
such parties as I may properly appear in. This is not much for
a sister who has at least done you no harm, and this I hope you
will promise by your answer to this letter ; for a refusal will give
me more pain than you can desire or intend to inflict.
I am, &c.
DEAR MADAM,
This is my letter, which at least I like better than yours.
But take your choice, and if you like mine alter any thing that
you think not ladylike. I shall call at about one.
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS TO Miss REYNOLDS x.
Richmond 2.
DEAR SISTER,
I am very much obliged to you for your kind and generous
thy inside now is, as I told thee ten x From the original in the posses-
year since I will not shut the door sion of Lady Colomb. This letter is
against thee. But it may be, thy endorsed by Miss Reynolds: — 'I be-
soul is past all recovery. If so, I shall lieve in '81.'
never see thee more. Thy vissitation 2 On Aug. 25, 1780, Johnson wrote
is not yet come : and who knows in to Mrs. Thrale : — * I have not dined
what shape it will come : or whether out for some time but with Renny
it will come at all. Wo be to thee if [Miss Reynolds] or Sir Joshua ; and
it does not come. next week Sir Joshua goes to Devon-
From thy best friend shire, and Renny to Richmond, and
ELIZ. JOHNSON. I am left by myself.' Letters, ii. 201.
Nov. 8t%, 1776.' ' Sir Joshua's house is delightfully
She declined his offer to receive situated, almost at the top of Rich-
into his house one of her sons 'who mondHill.' Mme. D'Arblay's Z^Vwj,
had shown some talent in drawing.' ii. 143.
Taylor's Reynolds, i. 461.
offer
Letters of Dr. Johnson. 457
offer in regard to the house at Richmond, not only in giving me
leave to use it occasionally but even as long as I live, provided
I will give it to you, but as I have no such thought at present
I can only thank you for your kindness. Tho I am much older
than you I hope I am not yet arrived to dotage as you seem to
think I am, voluntarily to put myself in the situation of receiving
the favour of living in my own house instead of conferring the
favour of letting you live in it.
I am your most affectionate Brother,
J. REYNOLDS.
I have enclosed a Bank Bill of ten Pounds x.
FROM JAMES BOSWELL TO SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS2.
Edinburgh, 6 February, 1784.
MY DEAR SIR,
I long exceedingly to hear from you. Sir William Forbes 3
brought me good accounts of you, and Mr. Temple4 sent me very
pleasing intelligence concerning the fair Palmeria 5. But a line
or two from yourself is the next thing to seeing you.
' My anxiety about Dr. Johnson is truly great. I had a letter 6
from him within these six weeks, written with his usual acuteness
find vigour of mind. But he complained sadly of the state of
[jjRs health; and I have been informed since, that he is worse.
tyi intend to be in London next month, chiefly to attend upon him
/with respectful affection. But in the mean time, it will be a great
(favour done me, if you who know him so well, will be kind
isnough to let me know particularly how he is 7.
1 ' In a rough draft of one of her 2 From the original in the posses-
letters she adverts to the income sion of Lady Colomb.
allowed her by her brother, as suffi- 3 Ante, ii. 195 ; Life, v. 24.
cient to keep her within the sphere 4 The grandfather of the Arch-
of gentility, " without pecuniary bishop of Canterbury. Life, i. 436.
schemes to raise it higher."' He 5 Probably Sir Joshua's niece Mary
left her ^2,500 in the Funds for Palmer,
life ; to his niece Mrs. Gwatkin he 6 Ib. iv. 248.
left four times as much absolutely, 7 Johnson wrote to Boswell on
while Miss Palmer inherited nearly Feb. n:— ' I hear of many enquiries
,£100,000. Taylor's Reynolds, i. 92 ; which your kindness has disposed
ii. 635. you to make after me.' Ib. iv. 259.
I hope
458
Letters of Dr. Johnson.
I hope Mr. Dilly conveyed to you my Letter on the State of
the Nation z from the Author. I know your political principles,
and indeed your settled system of thinking upon civil society
and subordination, to be according to my own heart. And
therefore I doubt not you will approve of my honest zeal. But
what monstrous effects of Party do we now see ! I am really
vexed at the conduct of some of our friends 2.
Amidst the conflict, our friend of Port Elliot is with much
propriety created a Peer 3. But why o why did he not obtain the
title of Baron Mahogany 4 ? Genealogists and Heralds would
have had curious work of it to explain and illustrate that
title.
I ever am with sincere regard,
My Dear Sir,
Your affectionate
humble servant,
JAMES BOSWELL.
1 Life, iv. 258, 260-1.
2 Johnson wrote to Boswell on Feb.
27 : — ' I am very much of your
opinion, and, like you, feel great in
dignation at the indecency with which
the King is every day treated.3 Ib.
iv. 261.
The struggle between the late Co
alition Ministry and the King and
Pitt was still going on. Among those
whom Boswell calls ' our friends ' was
Burke.
3 He had been raised to the peer
age, under the title of Baron Eliot of
St. Germans, in a time of great dis
honour. ' Pitt's cousin, Earl Temple,
had been in the royal closet, and had
there been authorised to let it be
known that His Majesty would con
sider all who voted for the bill [Fox's
India bill] as his enemies. The
ignominious commission was per
formed ; and instantly a troop of
Lords of the Bedchamber, of
Bishops who wished to be translated,
and of Scotch peers who wished to
be re-elected made haste to change
sides.' Macaulay's Misc. Writings,
ed. 1871, p. 407. On Dec. 30, 1783,
Horace Walpole wrote (Letter 's, viii.
447) : — < They are crying Peerages
about the streets in barrows, and can
get none off.' At the general election
of 1780 Eliot had been opposed to
the King's party. Gibbon, who lost
his seat, writes : — ' Mr. Elliot was
now deeply engaged in the measures
of opposition, and the electors of
Liskeard are commonly of the same
opinion as Mr. Elliot.' Gibbon's
Misc. Works, v. 238.
4 At a dinner at Sir Joshua Rey
nolds', in 1781, * Mr. Eliot mentioned
a curious liquor peculiar to his
country, which the Cornish fisher
men drink. They call it Mahogany ;
and it is made of two parts gin, and
one part treacle, well beaten together.'
Life, iv. 78.
JAMES
Letters of Dr. Johnson. 459
TAMES BOSWELL TO LORD THURLOW1.
MY LORD,
Dr. Samuel Johnson, though wonderfully recovered from
a complication of dangerous illness, is by no means well, and
I have reason to think that his valuable life cannot be preserved
long, without the benignant influence of a southern climate.
It would therefore be of very great moment were he to
go to Italy before Winter sets in ; and I know he wishes it
much. But the objection is that his pension of £300 a year
would not be sufficient to defray his expence, and make it
convenient for Mr. Sastres, an ingenious and worthy native of that
country, and a teacher of Italian here, to accompany him 2.
As I am well assured of your Lordship's regard for Dr. Johnson
I presume, without his knowledge, so far to indulge my anxious
concern for him, as to intrude upon your Lordship with this
suggestion, being persuaded that if a representation of the matter
were to be made to his Majesty by proper authority the Royal
Bounty would be extended in a suitable manner.
Your Lordship I cannot doubt, will forgive me for taking this
liberty. I even flatter myself you will approve of it. I am to
set out for Scotland on Monday morning ; so that if your Lord
ship should have any commands for me, as to this pious negotia
tion, you will be pleased to send them before that time. But
Sir Joshua Reynolds, with whom I have consulted, will be here,
and will gladly give all attention to it.
I am with very great respect,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient
and most humble servant,
JAMES BOSWELL.
General Paoli's, Upper Seymour Street, Portman Square3.
24 June, 1784.
1 From the copyin Boswell's hand- see ib. p. 336 ; ante, i. 441. For this
writing of the original. This copy interesting letter I am indebted to
Boswell, no doubt, had given to Lady Colomb.
Reynolds, when, on setting out for 2 In the Life there is no mention of
Scotland, he left the management of Sastres as his companion, though
the ' pious negotiation ' described in his going explains why a larger sum
the letter in Sir Joshua's hands. Life, was required.
iv. 326, 339. For Thurlow's answer 3 ' I was (writes Boswell) enter-
SlR
460 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS TO JAMES BOSWELL*.
Wednesday.
This being St. Luke's day, the Company of Painters dine in
their Hall in the City, to which I am invited and desired to bring
any friend with me.
As you love to see life in all its modes if you have a mind
to go I will can \sic\ you about two o'clock, the black-guards
dine at half an hour after 2.
Yours,
J. REYNOLDS.
James Boswell, Esq.
DR. ADAMS TO DR. SCOTT 3.
Oxford, Feb. 8, 1785.
DEAR SIR,
We have received a most agreeable Token of our Friend
Dr. Johnson's Regard for his College in a Present of his Books
and of his Publications of every kind which he sent us a little
before his death 4. Mr. Sergrove informs me that there are some
literary Anecdotes found among his Papers which you have had
the Kind Thought of depositing likewise in our Library 5. These
tained with the kindest attention as tion at losing two or three hours of
General Paoli's constant guest while his working-day ; ' none of his hours
I was in London, till I had a house were ever spent in idleness, or lost in
of my own there.' Life, Hi. 35. dissipation.' Ib. i. 119.
1 From the original in the posses- 3 From the original in the posses
sion of Lady Colomb. sion of Mr. R. B. Adam.
' Mr. Camden, the famous anti- Dr. Adams was the Master of
quarian, whose father was a painter Pembroke College ; Dr. Scott (after-
in the Old Bailey, gave the Painter wards Lord Stowell) was one of the
Stainers' Company a silver cup and executors of Johnson's will. Life, iv.
cover, which they use every St. Luke's 402, n. 2.
day at their election ; the old Master 3 According to Dr. Hall, who was
drinking to the one then elected out elected Master in 1809, the College
of it.' Dodsley's London, 1761, v. did not receive all his works. 2b.
103. i. 74, n. 3.
2 Reynolds at home always ' dined s In the Library there are many
at five o'clock precisely.' North- of Johnson's manuscripts, but no
cote's Reynolds, ii. 95. His strong literary anecdotes.
language is perhaps due to his vexa-
will
Letters of Dr. Johnson. 461
will be most thankfully accepted under any conditions that you
are pleased to prescribe. They shall be preserved among the few
MSS. and rarer Books which are locked up from view and will
greatly enrich this collection. He tells me also that he apprized
you of a sort of promise which he thought the Doctor had made
us of his Picture. But this is more than we have a right to say.
We had indeed formed to ourselves an expectation of this kind
which was grounded wholly on the following incident. The
Doctor found in my Parlour some time ago a Print of himself
which belonged to our Common Room : under which I had
just then caused to be written a Line of his Favourite Miss
Hannah More, 'And is not Johnson ours himself an Host1,'
with which he seemed well pleased. This gave occasion to my
Daughter to whom he was always very partial2 to say [piece
torn off] to have his Picture in the Hall, and to hope that he
would oblige us with it. His answer was that he had no Right
to be placed among the Founders and Benefactors of the College
in the Hall ; that the most he could aspire to would be a Place
in the Lodgings, if the Master could find Room for his Picture
there. This we were willing to construe as an intention to
comply with our Wishes and flattered ourselves accordingly.
Should his Executors incline to put the same construction upon
this, and have it in their power to fulfill this intention, they
would confer the highest obligation upon us. It would indeed
be a singular pleasure and matter of useful Reflection to have
his Portrait always before us as the Memorial of one who
excelled in every Virtue and was so great an Ornament to the
College3. The Doctor's last visit was I believe to this College.
1 Ante, ii. 199. woode, hangs in the Common Room.
2 ' She happened to tell him that A copy of the portrait of him by
a little coffee-pot, in which she had Reynolds in the National Gallery,
made his coffee, was the only thing taken by Miss Leveson, the daughter
she could call her own. He turned of the Scribe of the Johnson Club,
to her with a complacent gallantry:— and given by her to the College,
" Don't say so, my dear : I hope you hangs in the hall. There also is to be
don't reckon my heart as nothing." ' seen a copy of a portraitof Dr. Adams;
Life, iv. 292. it is to be hoped that some day
3 His portrait by Reynolds, the it will be replaced by the original
gift of the late Mr. Andrew Spottis- picture.
We
462 Letters of Dr. Johnson.
We had much serious Talk together during the few days that he
staid with me: for which I ought to be the better as long as
I live x. He took a most affecting Leave of me, still saying that
he would come again soon.
I am, dear sir, with the most perfect Esteem,
Your affectionate
and obedient Servant,
W. ADAMS.
To Dr. Scott at Doctors Commons.
1 He used the same words in a letter to Boswell written a few days later.
Life, iv. 376.
ADDENDA
ADDENDA
(Vol.\. 285.)
FOR a criticism, most likely by Malone, of Mrs. Piozzi's anecdote of
the dinner at a nobleman's house, see Life, iv. 343.
Swift's hatred of the world and love of certain individuals, to which
Johnson refers, was expressed in a letter to Pope, dated September 29,
1725, in which he says: 'I have ever hated all nations, professions,
and communities ; and all my love is towards individuals ; for instance,
I hate the tribe of lawyers, but I love Counsellor such a one and Judge
such a one. It is so with physicians (I will not speak of my own trade),
soldiers, English, Scotch, French, and the rest. But principally I hate
and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter,
Thomas, and so forth.' Swift's Works, ed. 1803, xvii. 211.
(Vol. 1.342.)
Mr. R. B. Adam, of Buffalo, has in his collection three impressions
of J. Heath's engraving of the first portrait of Johnson painted by
Reynolds. ' I found,' writes Boswell, ' that I had a very perfect idea of
Johnson's figure from the portrait of him painted by Sir Joshua
Reynolds soon after he had published his Dictionary, in the attitude
of sitting in his easy chair in deep meditation, which was the first
picture his friend did for him, which Sir Joshua very kindly presented
to me, and from which an engraving has been made for this work.'
Life, i. 392. See also ib. iv. 422 n.
The last of the three impressions is of the engraving as it was
published. On the margins of the first and second are the following
inscriptions in Boswell's handwriting : —
VOL. II. H h
466 Addenda.
i.
* This is the first impression of the Plate after Mr. Heath the Engraver
thought it was finished. He went with me to Sir Joshua Reynolds's, who
suggested that the countenance was too young and not thoughtful enough.
Mr. Heath therefore altered it so much to its advantage that Sir Joshua was
quite satisfied, and Heath then saw such a difference that he said he would
not for a thousand pounds have had it remain as it was.'
II.
1 Second Impression of Dr. Johnson's Portrait after the Plate had been
improved by Sir Joshua Reynolds's suggestions. Mr. Heath afterwards gave
it a few additional touches.'
Among other treasures Mr. Adam has a copy of the fifth edition of
Goldsmith's Traveller, with the following inscription on the title-page
in Boswell's handwriting : —
' In Spring 1773 Dr. Johnson at my desire marked with a pencil the lines
in this admirable poem which he furnished, viz. 1. 18 on p. 23, and from the
3 line on the last page to the end except the last couplet but one. These
(he said) are all of which I can be sure.' See Life, ii. 6 ; ante, ii. 223.
(Vol. i. 419, n. 2.)
The contempt which Johnson showed for George Ill's mental power
was expressed also by him at Edinburgh, if we could trust the following
passage in The Jacobite Lairds of Gask, by J. L. Kington Oliphant,
1870, p. 377 1: * Bishop Forbes, nonjuror rogue, is writing, "You know
the famous Dr. Johnson has been among us ; several anecdotes could
I give you of him, but one is most singular. Dining one day at the
table of one of the Lords of Session, the company stumbled upon
characters, particularly, it would appear, of kings. 'Well, well,' said
the bluff Doctor, * George the First was a robber, George the Second
a fool, and George the Third is an idiot.' How the company stared
I leave you to judge ; it was far from being polite, especially considering
the table at which he was entertained, and that he himself is a pensioner
at £500 [£300] a year."'
The only Lord of Session at whose house Johnson dined was Lord
Hailes. Of this dinner Boswell records : ' We spent a most agreeable
day ; but again I must lament that I was so indolent as to let almost all
that passed evaporate into oblivion.' Many years later Hailes sent him
1 what he could recollect,' which was next to nothing. c Was it upon
that occasion (he wrote), that Johnson expressed no curiosity to see the
room at Dumfermline, where Charles I was born ? "I know that he
was born (said he) ; no matter where." Did he envy us the birth-place
of the King ? ' Life, v. 398.
1 This passage was shown me by Mr. W. Keith Leask, who came across it when
writing The Life of Bo swell.
Addenda. 467
Lord Hailes's recollection, if he is right as to the occasion when this
talk took place, certainly tends to confirm one part of Forbes's anecdote —
the company did stumble upon kings. Nevertheless, I doubt much the
story. In the first place, Forbes, it is clear, was not at the dinner
himself. Whatever was said reached him second-hand. A nonjuror
would eagerly catch at any report against a Hanoverian King. His
* willingness to believe' he would easily have 'advanced to conviction.'
The stories told in Scotland against Johnson required sifting. They
were often set afloat by those whose national pride he had offended by
his wit. In the second place, had Johnson called the GREAT PER
SONAGE an idiot, there would have been, as regards this one utterance,
no ' evaporation into oblivion ' on Boswell's part. He might, indeed,
have suppressed the word 'idiot/ as he suppressed the words used by
his ' honoured father ' and his ' respected friend ' when as ' intellectual
gladiators ' they contended in the library at Auchinleck ; that there was
a suppression he would certainly have let his readers know. He would
have lamented that from 'the spirit of contradiction,' no longer
' tempered by the reverential awe ' which had been felt in the interview
with the King, the great moralist ' had grown so outrageous ' as to apply to
his Majesty a term ' which it would be very unbecoming in me to report.'
Johnson spoke roughly enough, no doubt, of the first two Hanoverian
Kings. ' George the First (he said), knew nothing, and desired to know
nothing ; did nothing, and desired to do nothing. ... He roared with
prodigious violence against George the Second.' Life, ii. 342. Even
after the third George had been two-and-twenty years on the throne he
said to Boswell, having first lowered his voice, 'Sir, this Hanoverian
family is isolee here.' Ib. iv. 165. Nevertheless, of the King personally,
so far as his biographers show, he always spoke with respect. ' Sir,' he
said, 'they may talk of the King as they will; but he is the finest
gentleman I have ever seen.' Ib. ii. 40.
My disbelief of Forbes's anecdote, however, is based, not so much on
the improbability of Johnson calling George III an idiot, as on the
impossibility of Boswell passing over such an outburst in silence.
(JW.ii.43-)
Dr. Thomas Campbell, in his account on this page of a dinner at
Mr.Thrale's in March, 1775, says that 'the two first courses were served
in massy plate.' The abundance of the plate in this house, which the
kindness of its master and mistress 'allowed Johnson to call his home'
(Letters, i. 129), is shown in the Sale Catalogue of Mrs. Piozzi's Library,
H h 2,
468 Addenda.
Curiosities, &c., a copy of which has been lent me by my friend,
Mr. T. Fisher Unwin. Among the three thousand ounces of silver
sold was a ' truly magnificent service of One pattern.' consisting of thirty-
four dishes and sixty-six plates. The sale was held at Manchester, in
September, 1823, and lasted six days. Among the lots were the
following Johnsonian relics : —
1 Lot 430. Auctores Classici — Sallustius, Horatius et Terentius. 3 torn.
8vo. Dub. 1747. On the first leaf is written : "Given by Dr. John
son to H. L. Thrale, 1770."
'645. A few interesting Original letters (some in French) [Letters, i. 150,
324] in the handwriting of Dr. Johnson.
1 649. "Johnson's Padlock, committed to my care in the year 1768."
* 650. The Grant of the Freedom of Aberdeen to Samuel Johnson, LL.D., on
parchment, with a red ribbon and wax seal [Life, v. 90 ; Letters, i. 233].
'716. A Small Red Morocco Pocket-Book, with a medical receipt in
Dr. Johnson's own handwriting, with massive metal gilt ornaments
round the sides, and lock and key, ivory leaves inside, and denomi
nated in Mrs. P.'s own writing, "THE POCKET BOOK OF DOCTOR
JOHNSON.'"
On the fly-leaf of this catalogue a former owner, James Taylor, ' an
antiquarian bookseller,' has recorded that at the sale of ' Mr. Webster's
Library at Mr. Evans's,' in April, 1826, £3 155-. was given for a copy of
* Bos well's Life of Johnson, 4 vols., 1816, in the most beautiful condition,
\ bound russia, top edges gilt and front edges uncut, with numerous
manuscript notes written in the margin by Mrs. Piozzi.'
(Vol. ii. 51.)
Johnson's doubt whether a tree could be found in Scotland for him
to be hanged on finds some justification in the following passage in
J. H. Burton's History of Scotland, ed. 1867, iv. 198, to which my
attention has been drawn by Mr. Leask. The historian, describing
a raid to the Borders by the Earl of Murray, Queen Mary's brother,
to put down the disturbances there, says that fifty-three outlaws were
taken, of whom eighteen were drowned 'for lack of trees and halters.'
(Vol. ii. 79.)
I have lately seen in a second-hand bookseller's catalogue the
following extract from a letter by Johnson dated April 30, 1774, ad
dressed to 'The Rev. Dr. Home, of Magdalen College, Oxford': 'The
Life of Walton has happily fallen into good hands. Sir John Hawkins
has prefixed it to the late edition of the Angler, very diligently collected
and very elegantly composed.' Home in this same year, Bos well
writes, s had talked of publishing an edition of Walton's Lives, but had
laid aside that design upon Dr. Johnson's telling him, from mistake,
that Lord Hailes intended to do it.' Life, ii. 279, 283, 445.
INDEX
INDEX
ABERDEEN, fourth Earl of, i. 366 «.,
430 «•
ABINGTON, Mrs., i. 196 n. ; ii. 49, 318 n.
Academy, i. 367 n.
ACADEMY of Literature, i. 435.
Accoucheur ; i. 129 «.
ACCOUNTS, i. 32.
ACLAND, Sir T., ii. 207.
Acquaintance, i. 347 w.
Act, i. 76 «.
ACTORS, i. 457 ; ii. 241 n., 248.
ADAM, Robert B., i. 87 n., 232 w. ; ii. 29 «.,
439 «., 440 «., 442 #., 451 w., 460 «., 465.
ADAMS, President John, ii. 2 n.
ADAMS, Rev. William, D.D., answers
Hume, ii. 437; death of his wife, ii.
203 n. ; Johnson's College days, i. 164,
362-3 ; — Dictionary, i. 183 n. ; — his
guest, i. i i6n. ; ii. 198, 202 ; — Prayers,
i. 4, 1 19 n. ; — pride, ii. 93 n. ; letter to
Dr. Scott, ii. 460 ; mentioned, i. 439 ;
ii. I33«.
ADAMS, Mrs., ii. 202 «.
ADAMS, Miss, ii. 461.
ADDISON, Joseph, Aristotle, ii. 62 ;
attacks, i. 271 n. ; Battle of the Cranes,
ii. 314 ; beggars, i. 204 n. ; Bunyan,
i. 332 n. ; Busby, ii. 304 n, ; Button's
coffee-house, i. 434 n. ; cant of sensi
bility, i. 161 n. ; Cato, i. 284 n., 401,
462, 473; ii. 13, 415; chaplains, i.
364 n. ; Christianity, defence of, i.
81 n. ; conge d'elire, ii. 328 ».; critic,
i. 469; dessert, i. no n. ; drinking, ii.
336 ; flying, ii. 396 n. ; Hammond,
Dr., i. 107 n. ; Hottentot, i. 384 n. ;
hymn, ii. 393 ; invention, ii. 73 n. ;
Latin poems, i. 459 ; longitude, i.
402 w. ; Lucan, i. 152 n. ; Milton,
i. 483 «.; More, Hannah, ii. 179 n. ;
' rattling through polysyllables,' ii.
352 ; Spectator, i. 392 ; Steele, loan to,
ii. 3 n. ; Strada, i. 366 n. ; ii. 359 n. ;
style, i. 233, 283, 466-70; Tickell's
Homer, i. 482 ; ' wits of King Charles's
time,' i. 385 n. ; wives, ii. 1 1 n ; wrote
for money, ii. 91 n.
Adventurer, i. 166 »., 403, 470 ; ii. 187,
351-
Advertisement, ii. 29 n.
ADVERTISEMENTS, ii. 454.
ADVICE, i. 206.
AKENSIDE, Mark, i. 452 n. ; ii. 34, 327.
ALCHEMY, i. 306 «.
ALEMBERT, i. 212 n., 365, 434.
ALLEN, Edmund, i. 98, 100, 106, 438,
444 J «• JI9-
ALLEN, Ralph, ii. 15 «.
ALLEN, Rev. Mr., ii. 7 »., 451.
ALLEN, — , of Magdalen Hall, ii. 125 n.
Almost nothing, i. 88.
ALMS-GIVING, i. 204 ; ii. 393, 416.
Altar, i. 65 n.
AMBASSADORS, foreign, ii. no w.
AMERICA, Burke's speeches, i. 173 ; ii.
23 n.; Johnson, Taxation no Tyranny,
i. 426 ; — not admired there, ii. 51;
— violence, ii. 53, 55-7 ; Provincial
Assemblies, ii. 47 ; Scottish settlers, ii.
403 ; war, i. 112 n. ; ii. 307, 424.
AMUSEMENTS, see PLEASURES.
ANABAPTISTS, ii. 388 n.
ANACREON, i. 176.
ANDERSON, John P., i. 404 n.
ANDERSON, Dr. Robert, ii. 208.
ANDREWS, Rev. C. G., ii. 399 n.
Angel, i. 133 n.
Annals, i. 125-140.
ANNE, Queen, i. 133, 152, 360; ii. 338.
ANNIHILATION, i. 101 n.
ANSON, Lord, i. 195, 402.
Anti-Jacobin, ii. 207 n.
APOLLONIUS, i. 69.
Appose, ii. 118.
Araucana, ii. 441.
ARBUTHNOT, John, M.D., Johnson's
472
Index.
Arbuthnot, John Baretti, Joseph.
Messiah^ i. 370 ; money-scriveners, ii.
324 n. ; Pope and music, ii. 103 n. ;
Swift's physician, i. 223 n. ; Tale of a
Tub, i. 374 ».
ARCHER-HIND, Mrs., ii. 446 n.
ARGUMENT, ii. 409.
ARGYLE, Duchess of, ii. 261 n.
ARIOSTO, ii. 366, 381.
ARISTOTLE, i. 419 ; ii. 62.
ARITHMETIC, i. 281, 295, 301.
ARKWRIGHT, Sir Richard, ii. 325.
ARMAGH, Archbishop of, ii. 52-3.
ARNE, Dr., i. 197 n.
ARNOLD, Matthew, English Academy,
i. 437 n. ; French literature, ii. 289 n.
ARNOLD, — , ii. 393.
ART, works of, ii. 376 n.
ASCHAM, Roger, gained admirers, ii. 371 ;
obedience in old time, i. 162 ». ; pride
of Elizabeth's reign, i. 110 ». ; quick
wits, i. 315, 414.
ASHBOURNE, i. 8l, 101, 444.
ASHTON, Dr., ii. 430.
ASTLEY, Philip, ii. 377.
ASTON, Catherine, i. 254 n.
ASTON, Elizabeth, i. 101, 104, 106,
206 n. ; ii. 413.
ASTON, Mr. Justice, ii. 443 n.
ASTON, < Molly,' i. 255, 257 n., 258 5 ii.
17-
ASTON, Sir Thomas, Bart., i. 101 ».,
255 ».; ii. 413.
ATTACKS, i. 270, 274, 407 ; ii. 207,
420.
ATTENTION, continuity of, i. 139.
ATTERBURY, Bishop, ii. 410 n.
ATTORNEYS, i. 151 n., 327.
ATWOOD, Dr., i. 132.
AUCHINLECK, Lord, ii. 270 n., 395,
447 «., 467.
AUDLEY, Lord Chancellor, ii. i.
AUSTEN, Jane, i. no n.
AUTHORS, attacks, see under ATTACKS ;
best part in their books, ii. 310 ; com
plaints of neglect, i. 315 n. ; conse
quence and celebrity, ii. 227 ; copy
right, ii. 442 n. ; gentlemen writers, i.
334 ; ii. 304 ; opinion of the public, ii.
7, 19 ; quoting them, ii. 207.
AVARICE, i. 251.
AVERROES, i. 198 n.
B.
BACON, Francis, argument, ii. 409 ; casual
talk, ii. 94 ; Essays, Latin version re
translated, i. 137 n, ; — praised by
Burke and Johnson, ii. 229 ; extent of
his writings, ii. 302 ; great thinker, ii.
231-
BACON, Roger, ii. 325 n.
BAILEY, Nathaniel, ii. 95, 214^., 414.
BAKER, Sir George, M.D., ii. 399 n.
BAKER, Rev. Thomas, i. 421 n.
BALDWIN, Henry, ii. 35.
Balk, ii. 105 n.
BANKS, Sir Joseph, i. 195, 280 n.\ ii. 26,
32, 293.
BANKS, — , of Dorsetshire, ii. 275.
BANNISTER, Charles, i. 454 n.
BARBAULD, Mrs., children's stories, i.
156 n., 157 ; at Mrs. Montagu's, ii.
183 ; Richardson, ii. 437 n.
BARBER, Francis, Hawkins' attacks, ii. 81,
103 ; Johnson, annuity from, i. 441 n.,
448 ; ii. 1 2 1-6, 132, 379 ; — death, ii.
J46> J55» 386 5 — Hodge, i. 318 ; —
instructs him, i. 71, 90, 98, 103-4, IO7>
— papers, i. 127; — residuary legatee,
ii. 445 n. ; — service, enters, i. 391 ; —
sided with him, i. 292 ; — watch, ii.
81, 117 n., 296 ».; — wife, i. 257,
290-1 ; Windham, recommends him
to, ii. 383 ; ran away, ii. 439 ; * took
bribes,' ii. 329 n. ; waiting at table, ii.
276; mentioned, i. 440 ; ii. 129, 153,
399-
BARCLAY, Robert, author of The Apology,
ii. 389.
BARCLAY, Robert, the banker, ii. 389.
BARCLAY, Robert, the brewer, i. 175 n.,
238 «., 242 n. ; ii. 389.
BARETTI, Joseph, Boswell's foe, ii. 44 ;
described by Campbell, ii. 40; — by
Mrs. Thrale, ii. 41 n. ; Dialogues, ii.
43 ; Easy Phraseology, i. 194 ; Foote,
ii. 240 n. ; Irish rebellion, ii. 54, 57 n. ;
Johnson and Mrs. Thrale, i. 189 n. ;
— and Mrs. Salisbury, i. 235 n. ; — at
Streatham, i. 340 n. ; — described, ii.
42 ; — wagers, ii. 46 ; — talk, ii. 254;
- — French tour, ii. 286, 290-2 ; — no
cordial friendship with him, ii. 292 ;
Junius, ii. 41 ; lions, one of the, ii. 52 ;
Index.
473
Baretti, Joseph Blair, Rev. Dr. Hugh.
portrait, i. 342 n. ; rudeness, i. 453 ;
Thrale, flatters Mrs., ii. 40 ; tried for
murder, i. 105 n. ; ii. 44, 228 n. ; men
tioned, i. 257, 261 ; ii. 49, 363.
BARKER, Edmund, M.D., i. 389.
BARNARD, Sir Frederick Augusta, i. 211.
BARNARD, Rev. Dr., Dean of Derry,
afterwards Bishop of Killaloe,i. 287 n. ;
ii. 137 n., 262.
BARNARD, Rev. Dr. (Provost of Eton), i.
168, 245 ; ii. 201 n., 364.
BARRETIER, Philip, ii. 339.
BARRINGTON, Daines, ii. 24, 221 «.
BARRINGTON, Bishop Shute, ii. 198.
BARROW, Rev. Isaac, D.D., i. 329 n. ;
ii. 103 n., 189 n.
BARROW, Rev. W., D.D., i. 356 n.\ ii.
21.
BARRY, James, ii. 221 n.
BARRY, Spranger, ii. 50.
BARTHOLOMEW-FAIR, i. 336.
Bas Bleu, ii. 58, 201.
BATES, Joah, i. 197.
BATH, ii. 399 n., 402.
BATH, Earl of, ii. 271, 409/2.
BATHING, ii. 428.
BATHURST, Captain, i. 391 n. ; ii. 439 n.
BATHURST, first Earl, i. 173.
BATHURST, Richard, M.D., i. 29, 61, 65,
158, 204, 205 «., 291, 389, 390, 448 ;
ii. 100, 439 n.
BATT, Thomas, ii. 30.
BATTIE, William, M.D., ii. 431.
BAXTER, Richard, i. 39,41 ; ii. 189, 222.
BEATTIE, Dr. James, i. 88 n., 233 »., 269,
333 n., 429; ii. 297 »., 355 n.
BEAUCLERK, Topham, descended from
Charles II, ii. 31 n. ; Garrick's portrait,
i. 265/2.; humour, i. 386; Hutchinson,
ii. 183 n. ; Johnson and the mastiff, i.
224; — afraid of spirits, i. 278 ; — ,
coalition with, i. 383 n. ; — Irene, i.
386 ; — portrait, i. 459 n. ; ii. 9 ;
Literary Club, i. 230,420; talk, i. 273,
469 ; ii. 265 ; wife, i. 222 n. ; men
tioned, i. 351 ; ii. 245/2., 260 n.
BEAUMONT, Sir George, ii. 232 n.
Beauties, ii. 2.
BECKET, T., ii. 211 n.
BECKFORD, Alderman, i. 211 ».; ii.
302 n.
BEDFORD, fourth Duke of, i. 252 n.
Bedgown, i. 30/2.
BEHAVIOUR, i. 161.
Belace, ii. 95 n.
BELL, Jane, i. 239 n.
BELL, printer, ii. 36.
BENEDICTINES, i. 210.
BENSERADE, Isaac de, i. 195.
BENTHAM, Jeremy, mother's death, i.
22 n.; 'tipped' by Cox, i. 105 n. ;
Bishop Horsley, i. 106 n. ; Streatham,
i. 109 n. ; lace, i. 253 n. ; Lord Cam-
den, ii. 63 n. ; Hawkins, ii. 80 ; Hoole,
ii. 200 n. ; estimate of character, ib. ;
Dean Barnard, ii. 263 n. ; Oxford, ii.
313 n, ; Ellis the scrivener, ii. 324 n.
BENTLEY, Rev. Richard, D.D., attacked
by Swift, ii. 377 ; attended by Heber-
den, ii. 15472.; King's Librarian, ii.
362 ; learning, ii. 9, 142 ; like an old
trunk, ii. 229/2.; studied hard, i. 181 n. ;
ii. 2 14 n. ; undergraduates of Trinity,
ii. 313 w.
Berlin , ii. 441.
BERNARD, Dr., ii. 400.
BERNI, i. 269.
BERRENGER, Richard, i. 254; ii. 187,
193 n,
BERRY, Miss, i. 356 n. ; ii. 424 ».
BEST, H. D., ii. 23 »., 390.
BETTERTON, Thomas, ii. 242 n.
BEVERIDGE, Bishop, ii. 429.
BEZA, i. 394.
BICKERSTAFF, Isaac, i. 262 ; ii. 324 ft.
< BIG BEN,' i. 475.
BIGELOW, E. L., ii. 26 n.
BINCKES, Prebendary, ii. 410 n.
BIRCH, Deputy, ii. 36.
BIRCH, Rev. Thomas, D.D., ii. 365 n.
BIRMINGHAM, i. 139, 364 ; ii. 410 n.
BLACKBURNE, Archdeacon, i. 398 n.
BLACKMORE, Sir Richard, ii. 314.
BLACKSTONE, Sir William, madmen, i.
320 n. ; Addison and Pope, i. 482 ;
libels, ii. 35 n. ; Conge d'elire, ii.
328 «.; copyright, ii. 443 n. ; society,
ii. 444 «.
BLACKWALL, Anthony, ii. 340.
BLAGDEN, Dr. (Sir Charles), ii. 24, 26,
3°-
BLAIR, Rev. Dr. Hugh, ii. 350 n.
474
Index.
Blake, William Boswell, James.
BLAKE, William, ii. 164 n.
BLAKESTON, Rev. H. E. D., i. 69 n.
Blockhead, ii. 270^.
BLUE STOCKING CLUB, ii. 59.
BOASE, Rev. C. W., ii. 334 n.
BOASE, George C., i. 475 «.
Bobwig, ii. 75.
BOCAGE, Madame du, ii. 290.
BOILEAU, father, i. 155, 361 ; Jesuits, ii.
200 ; Johnson's delight in him, i. 334,
416 ; — did not borrow from him, ii.
372 ; Malherbe, i. 466 n. ; modern
Latin, i. 365.
BOLINGBROKE, Lady, ii. 8 n.
BOLINGBROKE, first Viscount, recommends
Prince of Wales's preceptor, i. 180 n. ;
'scoundrel,' i. 211 n., 408; ii. 315;
quoted, i. 487 ; Middleton's Cicero, ii. 8.
BOLINGBROKE, second Viscount, i. 222.
BONAVENTURA, i. 36.
BONSTETTEN, — , i. 19! n.
BOOKS, why invented, i. 206 ; the art of
living, i. 324 ; too long, i. 332 ;
written without effort, ii. 309 ; in one's
pocket, ii. 311 ; payments for, ii. 349.
BOOKSELLERS, ii. 106, 125 n., 162 n.,
443 n.
BOOTHBY, Sir Brooke, ii. 391.
BOOTHBY, Hill, i. 18, 65, 177 «., 178 #.,
256 n., 257 ; ii. 391.
BOSCAWEN, Hon. Mrs., ii. 181, 186-7,
192 n., 195.
BOSCOVITCH, i. 416.
Bossu, ii. 372.
BOSWELL, Sir Alexander, ii. 31 n.
BOSWELL, David, ii. 27.
BOSWELL, Dr., i. 25 n.
BOSWELL, James, Addison's style, i.
470 n. ; Ashbourne, ii. 447 ; Baretti's
foe, ii. 44 ; beauties of nature, ii.
210 ». ; Blackmore's lines, ii. 314;
Burke easy with him, ii. 25 ; chambers
in the Temple, ii. 38 ; chap-books, i.
156 n. ; Chatham, Lord, ii. 206 n. ;
Christianity, i. 81 n. ; Davies's dinner,
ii. 6 1 ; debts, i. 251 n.\ ii. 26, 33, 35 ;
described by Horace Walpole, i. 143 ;
— in the European Magazine, ii. 394 ;
— by Dugald Stewart, ii. 425 ; Esquire,
ii. 36; Essex Head Club, ii. 221;
Eton College, ii. 364 n. ; Government
of the Tongue, i. 87 n. ; Hawkins, i.
357 n., 440 «.; ii. 101 n., 130, 135 n.,
144; impatience, i. 263 n.\ inaccuracy,
i. 257 n. ; JOHNSON, America, ii. 55 «.;
— attacks him, ii. 230 «.; — at Bristol,
ii. 185 «.; — character drawing, ii.
270 «.; — diary, i. 14 n. ; — dinner at
Dilly's, ii. 47-8, 403 ; — dinner-table,
ii. n6«. ; — Easter, i. 59 «., 61-2,
66, 71, 74, 83, 85, 87, 98 ; ii. 194 «.;
— eating, ii. 278 n. ; — fond of him,
ii. 49; — freewill, ii. 233 ».; —
funeral, ii. 1 37 n. ; — Garrick's fame,
ii. 244 n. ; — Hawkins, ii. 81 ; -
health, ii. 457 ; humour, ii. 98 n. ; — ,
imitates, ii. 195 ; — , incites to talk,
ii. 47 «., 52 ; — , introduced to, i.
428 ; ii. 15 n.y 46, 63 n. ; — Italy, pro
posed tour, i. 441 ; ii. 459 ; — lemons,
ii. 100 n. ; — letters, ii. 363 «. ; —
Life, i. 165 n., 325 n. ; ii. 22, 26-30,
32-8, 74, 206, 294-6, 395, 408, 437 n. ;
cancels in it, ii. 29 ; Russian translation,
ii. 147 n. ; — offered a shilling, ii.
269; — Oglethorpe, ii. 51; — Paoli,
ii. 374 ; — portrait, ii. 274 n., 465 ; —
pronunciation, ii. 375 n.; — , questions,
ii. 52 ; — rebukes swearing, ii. 18 w. ;
— reproaches his inattention, ii. 374;
— , * spy on,' i. 358 n. ; ii. 45 ; -
style, i. 466 n. ; — tour to Hebrides,
i. 427, 430 ; — works of art, ii. 376 n. ;
— Wilkes, ii. 374 n. ; law, knowledge
of, ii. 395 ; Letter on the State of the
Nation, ii. 458 ; Literary Club, i.
229 w. ; lottery ticket, ii. 31; Mason's
poems, i. 169 ».; melancholy, ii. 33,
36, 38; More, Hannah, ii. 187-8;
note-book, i. 153 «., 175 «., 369 n.\ ii.
84 «., 86 »., 262 n., 389 ; Oxford, ii.
202, 406; Percy, criticized by, ii.
209, 211, 214, 216 «., 218 n.; Piozzi,
Mrs., see under THRALE ; prayers for
the dead, i. 14 n. ; Priestley, i. 463 n. ;
Reynolds's bequest, ii. 24 n. ; — ,
letter to, ii. 457 ; — letter from, ii.
460; Reynolds, Miss, ii. 250; rural
beauties, i. 323 n. ; Scotland, ii. 45,
226 n. ; spelling of his name, ii.
447 ».; talk, ii. 235 n.; Traveller, ii.
466 j troublesome kindness, i. 67 n. ;
Index.
475
Boswell, James Burke, Edmund.
vows, i. 299 n.\ wine, i. 321; ii. 21,
36, 44, 193 «., 194 ; witches in Macbeth,
ii. 1 80.
BOSWELL, James, junior, i. 356 n. ; ii.
21 n., 274 n.
BOSWORTH, i. 6, 364 ; ii. 340 n.
Settle, i. 47 3 n.
BOUCHER, Rev. John, ii. 22 n.
BOUCHER, Rev. Jonathan, D.D., i. 6 n.
BOUFFLERS, Madame de, ii. 180 n.
BOULTER, Archbishop, ii. 267.
BOURDON, Sebastian, ii. 232 ».
BOWER, Archibald, i. 397.
BOWYER, William, i. 444.
BOYLE, Hon. Robert, ii. 48, 409 n.
BOYSE, Samuel, i. 228; ii. 411.
BRADLEY, James, i. 402.
Braganza, ii. 46, 182.
BRAITHWAITE, — , ii. 160.
BREEDING, i. 254.
BRENT, Charlotte, i. 197.
BRENTFORD, i. 322.
BRIDGEWATER, Earl of, i. 147 n.
BRIGHTHELMSTONE (Brighton), i. 52 #.,
109 «., 224, 242 »., 245, 323.
BRISTOL, first Earl of, i. 135 «.
BRITISH COFFEE HOUSE, ii. 39.
BRITISH MUSEUM, i. 289 n.
BROCKLESBY, Richard, M.D., i. 88 n.,
in, 217 n., 439-40, 443~5» 448 »•;
ii. 7*., 29, 122, 125, 131, 136, 149,
152 «., 156 «., 159, 205, 221 ^.,323 «.,
335 «-> 368, 386-8, 398.
BRODIE, Captain, i. 255 n.
BROMFIELD, Robert, M.D., i. 106.
BROOKE, Frances, i. 322 ; ii. 192, 390.
BROOKE, Francis, i. 47 n.
BROOKE, Henry, i. 193 «., 375.
BROOKE, Rev. John, D.D., i. 322 «.
BROOME, William, i. 155.
BROUGHAM, Lord, i. 230 n.
BROUGHTON, Elizabeth, i. 449 n.
BROUGHTON, John, i. 449 n.
BROWN, John Douglass, jun., ii. 425.
BROWN, Tom, i. 157 n.
BROWNE, Isaac Hawkins, i. 266 ; ii. 10,
341.
BROWNE, Rev. Moses, i. 284 n. ; ii. 88 n.
BROWNE, Sir Thomas, i. 467 ; ii. 351.
BROWNE, Sir William, M.D., i. 170.
BRUCE, Captain and Mrs., ii. 333.
BRUCE, James, i. 365 n. ; ii. 12, 368.
BRUMOY, i. 481.
BRUTUS, i. 486.
BRUYERE, La, i. 334, 416.
BRYCE, Right Hon. James, ii. 287 n.
BUCHAN, Earl of, ii. 206 n.
BUCHANAN, George, i. 445 ; ii. 15, 48,
123, 380.
BUCKINGER, Matthew, i. 188, 419.
BUCKINGHAM, George Villiers, second
Duke of, i. 185.
BUCKINGHAM HOUSE, i. 425; ii. 118.
BUCKLE, Henry Thomas, ii. 424.
BUD WORTH, — , i. 366.
BUFFON, ii. 391 n.
BUNBURY, Sir Charles, ii. 30.
BUNBURY, H. W., ii. 30 n.
BUNBURY FAMILY, ii. 187.
BUNYAN, John, Pilgrim's Progress, i.
332, 385 »• J ii- 65 «., 406 ; copy
right, ii. 442 n.
Burdonum Fabulae Confutatio, i. 69.
BURGESS, Rev. Daniel, ii. 370.
BURGOYNE, General, ii. 26.
BURKE, Edmund, alms-giving, ii. 416 n.;
America, i. 173, 401 «.; ii. 186 n.,
357; Bacon's Essays, ii. 229; bag, in
a, i. 309 ; Baretti's trial, i. 105 «. ; ii.
228 n. ; Barnard's lines, ii. 265; Bos-
well, easy with, ii. 25 ; — good
humonr, ii. 395 ; Bunyan, i. 333 ». ;
' cashiering kings,' i. 429 n. ; conversa
tion, ii. 220 n. ; extraordinary man,
i. 290, 421 ; French Revolution, ii. 23,
25 ; funeral, ii. 379 n. ; Gibbon, ii.
233 n. ; Goldsmith, i. 422 «.; Haw
kins, attacked by, i. 389 n., 420 «.;
Johnson in Boswell's Life, ii. 220 n. ;
— Messiah, i. 460 ». ; — as a speaker,
ii. 362 n. ; — visits him, i. 309 ; —
Western Islands, ii. 6, 368 ». ; —wishes
him success, ii. 393 «.; Junius, i.
172 n. ; ii. 41; libels, i. 275 ».;
Literary Club, i. 229 «., 420; ii. 32,
63; Low Dutch, ii. 154 n. ; luxury,
ii. 97 n. ; Malone's Shakespeare, ii.
24-5; metaphors, i. i74». ; Montagu,
Mrs., ii. 272 ; mutual friend, ii. 219 ».;
Oracle, lines in the, ii. 36 ; portrait,
i. 342 «.; Reynolds's bequest, ii. 24
».; rude in dispute, ii. 23 n.; Scotch,
476
Index.
Burke, Edmund Carlisle, seventh Earl of.
decried by the, ii. 39 ; Thurlow, Lord,
ii. 388; Trinity College, Dublin, ii.
211 n.; mentioned, i. 37 n., 214/2.; ii.
179 n., 240, 245 »., 248 «., 369 «., 386.
BURKE, Richard, senior, ii. 42, 64, 263 «.
BURKE, Richard, junior, ii. 24, 26, 32,
388.
BURKE, William, i. 389 n.
BURLAMAQUI, i. 419.
BURLINGTON, Earl of, ii. 95 n.
BURNET, Gilbert, Bishop of Salisbury,
i. 415 n.; ii. 118 n.
BURNEY, Dr. Charles, Hastings, Warren,
ii. 22 n.; History of Music, i. 191 ; ii.
286, 303 ; Johnson's contradiction, i.
244; — death, ii. 158, 303, 388; —
late hours, i. 232 n. ; — study, ii.
2 59 n- i portrait, i. 342 n. ; Proba
tionary Odes, ii. 36 n. ; Smart, assists,
i. 320 n.
BURNEY, Dr. Charles (junior), ii. 196 n.
BURNEY, Charlotte, ii. 24 n., 104 n. ; ii.
195 »•
BURNEY, Frances (Madame D'Arblay),
Browne, Sir W., i. 170^. ; Court life,
i. 293 n.', ii. 30«.; Diaries, ii. 18 n. ;
Garrick, Mrs., ii. 194 n.\ Gibbon, ii.
233 n. ; Johnson charming, ii. 297 n. ;
— and Garrick, ii. 249 n. ; — fun, i.
287 n. ; — humour, ii. 98 n. ; — occa
sional sallies, i. 102 n. ; ii. 99 n. ; —
portrait, ii. 16472. ; — silence, i. 160 n. ;
— strange discipline,!. 102 n.; — talk,
i. 348 n. ; Montagu, Mrs., i. 338 n. ;
ii. 183^.; Musgrave, i. 342 n.\ Percy,
Bishop, ii. 180 n. ; Percy, Mrs., ii.
65 n. ; Reynolds, Miss, ii. 455 n.;
Smart, C., i. 320 n. ; Sterne, ii. 190 n.;
Tucker, Dean, ii. 186 n. ; Warren, Dr.,
ii. 398 n. ; mentioned, i. 206 n.
BURNEY, Richard, i. 280.
BURNEY, Susan, i. no »., 217 n.; ii.
iSn.
BURNEY FAMILY, i. 151.
BURNS, Robert, ii. 409 n.
BURROWS, Rev. Dr., ii. 50.
BURTON, J. H., ii. 468.
BURTON, Robert, Anatomy of Melan
choly, i. i6«., 797*., 31 2 n.
BUSBY, Dr., ii. 304.
BUSBY, — , a proctor, i. 179.
BUSINESS MAN, i. 238 n. ; ii. 13, 309,
389-
Bustle, i. 153 n.
BUTE, third Earl of, i. 322, 417-9; ii.
35° n-, 357>4l8«.
BUTLER, Samuel, ' confute,' &c., ii. 356 ;
new lights, i. 463 n. ; poverty, i. 147,
435 ; scruples, i. 41 n.
BUTT, — , ii. 83.
BUTTER, Dr., i. 445 ; ii. 136, 152, 159.
BUTTON'S COFFEE HOUSE, i. 434.
BYROM, Dr. John, i. 380.
BYRON, Lord, i. 371 n. ; ii. 316 n.
C.
Cabriolet stool, i. 150.
CADELL, Thomas, i. 143, 234 n., 297 n.
CADOGAN, Lord, ii. 109.
CAESAR, Julius, ii. 384.
CAGLIOSTRO, i. 143.
CALAIS, i. 74.
CALAMY, Rev. Edmund, D.D., ii. 189 n.
CALLENDER, Thomas, ii. 2 n.
CALVERT, Mrs., ii. 442.
CALVIN, i. 428.
CAMBRIDGE, Johnson's prejudice, i. 168,
456 ; visits it, ii. 405.
CAMBRIDGE, Richard Owen, ii. 22, 263 n.
CAMBYSES, i. 162.
CAMDEN, Lord Chancellor, copyright-
case, i. 382 n. ; ii. 443 ».; Garrick's
friend, ii. 63 ; — funeral, ii. 241 n. ;
general warrants, ii. 82 «.; Literary
Club, ii. 32 n., 196 n.
CAMDEN, William, ii. 460 ».
CAMOENS, ii. 343.
CAMPBELL, Sir Archibald, i. 449 n.
CAMPBELL, Archibald (Lexiphanes}, i.
407.
CAMPBELL, Dr. John, i. 56; ii. 51, 61 n.,
227 n., 351, 358.
CAMPBELL, Rev. Dr. Thomas, Diary, ii.
39-56, 467 ; Strictures, &c., ii. 56 n.
Canal, i. 324.
Cant, i. 161 »., 314 n.
CAPELL, Edward, ii. 315.
CARDS, i. 221.
Caricature, i. 192 n.
Carletoris, Captain, Memoirs, i. 319 n.
CARLISLE, fifth Earl of, ii. 304 n.
CARLISLE, seventh Earl of, ii. 273 n.
Index.
477
Carlyle, John Churchill, Charles.
CARLYLE, John, M.D., i. 260 n.
CARLYLE, Thomas, Johnson's Frederick
//, i. 464 n, ; Raynal's History, ii. 1 2
n. ; Johnson and Voltaire, ii. 308 n. ;
copyright, ii. 445 n.
CARMICHAEL, Miss, i. 205 n. ; ii. 411 n.
CAROLINE, Queen, i. 372 ; ii. 305 n.
CARTER, Elizabeth, Calais, ii. 289 n. ;
Crousaz's Examen, i. 374, 480; Greek,
ii. ii ; Johnson's piety, ii. 127 n. ;
Memoirs, ii. 58-60 ; More, Hannah,
ii. 181; Rambler, i. 180; ii. 351;
Richardson, ii. 251, 435 n. ; Russia,
ii. 237 n. ; Williams, Miss, ii. 173;
mentioned, i. 102 n. ; ii. 133 «., 183,
201.
CARTER, Rev. Nicholas, D.D., i. 374 n. ;
ii. 77 n.
GARY, Rev. Henry Francis, i. 478 n.
CASAUBON, Isaac, i. 64 n. ; ii. 362.
CASIMIR, i. 377.
Catch, i. 73.
CATILINE, i. 203.
CATOR, John, i. 340 n., 349 n. ; ii. 310.
CATS, i. 303.
CAVE, Edward, death, i. 403 ; Johnson
dazzles, ii. 88; — Ode, i. 465; —
Rambler, i. 393 n. ; wife, ii. 163;
mentioned, i. 150 n., 366, 369, 373-5,
377» 379> 382 n.-, ii. 342.
CERVANTES. See Don Quixote.
CHAMBERS, Catherine, i. 44-6, 156.
CHAMBERS, Ephraim, i. 466 n. ; ii. 348.
CHAMBERS, Sir Robert, i. 230, 342 n..
445; ii. 137 n.
CHAMBERS, Sir William, ii. 188.
CHAMIER, Andrew, i. 92, 230 «., 420.
CHANDLER, Professor H. W., ii. 406 n.
CHANDLER, Dr. Richard, ii. 406.
CHANDOS, Duke of, ii. 430.
CHAPONE, Mrs., i. 180; ii. 12 n., 191
251-2.
CHARLEMONT, first Earl of, i. 483 n.
ii. 30^., 137 n., 399 n.
CHARLES I, i. 394, 461 ; ii. 466.
CHARLES II, Cowley's death, ii. 335
descendants, i. 273 n. ; ii. 31 n.
portrait, ii. 164 n.; punning, ii. 18 n.
touching for king's evil, i. 133 n-
wits, i. 385 «.
CHARLES V, i. 330 n.
CHARLOTTE, Queen, ii. 402.
CHARTER-HOUSE, i. 402 «.
CHATHAM, Earl of, French war, i. 25 n. ;
feudal gabble, i. 350 n. ; Johnson's De
bates, i. 378 ; ii. 342 ; Trinity College,
ii. 85 n. ; Garrick, ii. 241 #.; American
War, ii. 307 ; meteor, ii. 309 n. ; story
told of him, ii. 400 n.
CHATTERTON, Thomas, ii. 15, 197, 346.
CHAULNES, Duke of, ii. 307.
CHELSUM, Rev. Dr., ii. 66 n.
Chemist, i. 307 n.
CHEMISTRY, i. 307.
CHENEVIX, Richard, Bishop, i. 359 n.
CHESELDEN, William, ii. 360.
CHESHIRE CHEESE TAVERN, ii. 91 n.
CHESTERFIELD, fourth Earl of, Bath,
Earl of, ii. 271 n. ; Bolingbroke,
Viscount, i. 222 n. ; clubs, i. 420 n. ;
courts and manners, ii. 276 n. ; educa
tion of women, ii. ii «. ; flattery, i.
272 «. ; Ford, Parson, i. 359; Hayley,
ii. 421 ; Hottentot, respectable, i. 384,
451; ii. 41, 348; King's servants, i.
112 n. ; Johnson's Dictionary, i. 383,
405 ; ii. 38, 95, 347-5°; lace, i- 253 n.\
laughter, ii. 186; leniores virtutes,\.
454 n. ; pride, ii. 93 n. ; ridicule and
truth, i. 452 n. ; Rome, i. 201 n.\
singularity, i. 221 n. ; son, ii. 16 ;
speeches, i. 379 n. ; volto sciolto, i.
312 n. ; wit, i. 385 > Yonge, Sir W.,
i. 464 n.
CHESTERFIELD, fifth Earl of, ii. 282 n.
CHETWOOD, William Rufus, i. 30 n.
CHEYNE, Dr., ii. 346.
CHILDREN, shown off, i. 152; ii. 415 ;
stories, i. 156; early impressions, i.
159; education, i. 160-3; lumps of
flesh, i. 328 ; examined, ii. 118.
CHOLMONDELEY, G. J., i. 319.
CHOLMONDELY, Mrs., i. 266 n., 41 7 n.,
451 ; ii. 268.
CHRISTIANITY, arguments for it, i. 81 ;
ii. 157, 306, 384; attacks on it, ii. 370;
public worship, ii. 96 ; expiatory sacri
fice, ii. 387. See also under JOHNSON,
religion.
CHRISTIE, the auctioneer, ii. 380 n.
CHURCH, Dean, ii. 305 n.
CHURCHILL, Charles, blockhead, ii. 2 70 ».;
Index.
Churchill, Charles Cottenham, Lord Chancellor.
Johnson's knowledge of books, ii. 344 ;
— London, ii. 354 ; — ridiculed, i. 271 ;
ii- 9> 354-
GIBBER, Colley, Chesterfield and John
son, i. 383 ; Lady's Last Stake, i. 241 ;
old comedians, ii. 99 ; Parson Ford,
i. 359 ; quoted by Goldsmith, ii. 367
n. ; vanity, ii. 244 n.
CICERO, i. 326 n., 454 ; ii. 8.
CLARENDON, first Earl of, ii. 35 «., 48.
CLARKE, Rev. Samuel, D.D., Sermons,
i- 38, 53, 55, 65, 69, 97 ; ii. 123, 156,
3°5, 387; studied hard, i. 181 n. ;
ii. 9 n., 143 «., 214 n. ; mentioned,
i. 388 n.
CLAYTON, — , ii. 54.
CLERK, Sir Philip Jennings, i. 339 n. ;
ii. 139 n.
Clever, ii. 234 n.
Clubable, ii. 395 n.
CLUBS, felicity in them,ii. 70; Essex Head
club, i. 440; ii. 221, 378, 393 «.; Ivy
Lane club, 1.231 »., 388, 394 ; ii. 96, 100 ;
Johnson club, ii. TOO n., 380 n. ; Literary
club, described, i. 229, 420, 422 ; ii. 63 ;
distracted by party, ii. 25 n. ; elections,
ii. 25 ; Garrick's death, ii. 196 ; Gold
smith there, i. 311 ; Johnson's funeral,
ii. 137 n. ; meetings in 1790-1, ii. 23,
25, 30,32 ; midnight club, ii. 26 ^n. ; sub
scribe to Lye's Dictionary, ii. 441 n. ;
talk, ii. 235 n. ; Warren, ii. 398 n.
COBBETT, William, ii. 228 n.
COBBLERS, i. 233 n.
COCK LANE GHOST, ii. 354.
COCK-PENNIES, i. 6 n.
Cocker's Arithmetic, i. 200 n. ; ii. 45.
COFFEE, i. 159.
COLE, Charles, ii. 310.
COLE, Rev. W., ii. 392.
COLEBROOK, Sir George, i. 207.
COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor, dreams, i.
12 n. ; Henderson, ii. 198 n. ; intelli~
gibilia, &c., ii. 246 n. ; Hartley, ii.
304 ».
COLLIER, Arthur, D.C.L., i. 246, 268, 328.
COLLIER, Mrs., ii. 452 n.
COLLIER, — , i. 72-3.
COLLINGTON, — , i. 293 n.
COLLINS, Rev. John, ii. 316.
COLLINS, William, i. 176 n.
COLMAN, George, i. 183; ii. 245, 320,
388.
COLOMB, Lady, ii. 250, 279 »., 448 «.,
449 «•, 455 n-> 456 n., 457 n., 459 ».,
460 n.
COLSON, Rev. Mr., i. 179.
COLUMBUS, Christopher, i. 402 n.
COMBE, Charles, i. 103 n.
COMBE, — , ii. 51.
COMPLAINTS, i. 315 ; ii. 20.
CoMPTON^Rev. James, ii. 453.
CONGE D'ELIRE, ii. 327.
CONGREVE, Archdeacon, ii. 40, 42, 52,
114 n.
CONGREVE, William, compared with
Shakespeare, i. 186 ; disowned Ireland,
ii. 48 ; gentleman in his comedies, i.
254 ; Old Bachelor, ii. 233 n. ; Steele's
dedication, i. 482.
Connoisseur, The, ii. 351.
CONSCIENCE, ii. 288.
CONVENTS. See MONASTERIES.
CONVERSATION, kind of game, i. 175;
happiest, i. 208 ; telling stories, i. 265 ;
without effort, i. 273; 'spun out of
one's own bowels/ i. 276; unconvers
able people, i. 281 ; promotes happi
ness, i. 289, 324; coming close to a
man, i. 442 n. ; with intelligent persons,
ii. 14; above the audience, ii. 222.
See also under JOHNSON.
CONVOCATION, ii. 369.
Convulsionary, ii. 338.
CONWAY, General, i. 242 n.
COOK, Captain, i. 280 n. ; ii. 415 n.
COOK, Thomas (the engraver), i. 248 n.
COOKE, George Frederick, ii. 318 n.
COOKE, William, i. 360 ». ; ii. 161 ».,
221 n. ; Anecdotes, ii. 393-4.
COOPER, John Gilbert, i. 424 n. ; ii. 288
n., 348.
COPY-RIGHT, i. 382 n., 433 n. ; ii. 437 ;
Johnson's letter, ii. 442 ; prices paid
for it, ii. 349.
CORBET, Andrew, i. 362 ; ii. 85.
CORBET, Mrs., i. 151.
CORKE, fifth Earl of, ii. 350, 436-7.
CORNEILLE, compared with Shakespeare,
i. 187; lines on Richelieu, ii. 307.
CORSICAN FAIRY, ii. 377.
COTTENHAM, Lord Chancellor, i. 244 n.
Index.
479
Cotterell, Charlotte Delany, Mrs.
COTTERELL, Charlotte, ii. 251, 261, 408 n.
COTTERELL, Mrs., ii. 310.
COTTLE, Joseph, ii. 198 n.
COTTON, Sir Robert, i. 190.
COTTON, — , i. 104.
COULSON, Rev. John, i. 197 n. ; ii. 406.
COUNTRY, i. 289, 324.
COURTENAY, John, ii. 21, 26, 32, 34,
36-8, 359 «.
COURTNEY, W. P., ii. 312.
COURVOISIER, i. 252 n.
COW-LANE, i. 336.
COWLEY, Abraham, death, ii. 335 ; John
son's Life, i. 477; letters, ii. 363 ;
Philosophic College, i. 306 n. ; style,
i. 466.
COWPER, William, Johnson's Journal,
i. 8 1 n., 450 n. ; — Lives of the Poets,
i. 477 n., 479 n. ; ii. 371 ».; Pilgrim's
Progress, i. 333 n. ; neglected by
Thurlow, i. 443 «. ; Moses Browne, ii.
89 n. ; John Gilpin, ii. 411 n.
Cox, — , a solicitor, i. 105-6.
COXCOMBS, i. 349.
CRABBE, Rev. George, i. 443 n.
CRADOCK, Joseph, Anecdotes, ii. 61-71,
410.
CRAUFORD, — , ii. 404.
CRAVEN, Earl of, ii. 334.
CRAVEN, Lady, ii. 175 n.
CRISP, Samuel, i. 338 n.
Critic, i. 480 n.
CROESUS, i. 162 n.
CROFT, Rev. Herbert, i. 104 n.
CROFTS, — , i. 104, 106.
CROKF.R, Rt. Hon. John Wilson, absurd
suspicion, i. 382 n. ; Greek, i. 89 n. ;
Hannah More, ii. 178 ; meeting dukes,
ii. 68 n. ; Steevens, ii. 328.
CROMWELL, Oliver, eminent personage,
i. 300 n. ; Milton's adulation, i. 485 '>
miniature, ii. 24 n. ; wasted Ireland,
ii. 55-
CROUSAZ, John Peter de, i. 374, 48°-
CRUIKSHANK, William Cumberland, i
445, 448 ; ii. 133-6, 156, 158-9, 385-6
388.
CRUTCHLEY, Jeremiah, i. 340 n.
CUBLEY, i. 129 n.
CUMBERLAND, Duke of (uncle of Georg
III), ii. 169 n.
CUMBERLAND, Duke of (brother of
George III), ii. 68.
CUMBERLAND, Mrs., ii. 76.
CUMBERLAND, Richard, Anecdotes, ii.
72-78; Odes, ii. 265; actors, ii. 318 «.
CUMMING, Thomas, i. 274.
CUNNINGHAM, Peter, i. 188 n.
CURTIS, Alderman, ii. 36.
URZON, — , ii. 392 n.
CYRUS THE GREAT, i. 162.
D.
DACRE, Lord, ii. 316 n.
DALLOWAY, Dr., ii. 158.
DALRYMPLE, Sir John, ii. 10.
DANCE, — , ii. 33.
DANTE, life an arch, i. 260 n. ; Brutus,
i. 486 n.; Virgil, ii. 165 ». ; Count
Ugolino, ii. 248 n.
DARTREY, Lord, ii. 50.
DARWIN, Charles Robert, avoided con
troversies, i. 271 n.; reading articles he
could not understand, ii. 222 n. ; Dr.
Warren, ii. 398 n.
DARWIN, Dr. Erasmus, ii. 398 »., 415 n.
DARWIN, Francis, ii. 222 n.
DAVID, King, ii. 404.
DAVIES, Thomas, Johnson's benevolence,
i. 35, 184 «.; ii. 61 n. ; — and Bos-
well, i. 427 ; — and Cradock, ii. 61 ;
— and Stockdale, ii. 330 ; — Fugitive
Pieces, i. 184; ii. 187 ».; — laugh,
ii. 71 n. ; — , present to, ii. 153 ; men
tioned, i. 30, 106 ; ii. i7»., 453-
DAVIES, Mrs., ii. 62, 151.
DAVIS, H. E., ii. 66.^
DAWKINS, c Jamaica,' i. 213.
DAY, — , ii. 39-
DEAD, commending the. See under
PRAYERS.
DEANE, Mrs., ii. 404.
DEATH, ii. 101, 394. See under JOHN
SON.
Debates of Parliament, i. 378, 446, 476 ;
ii. 342, 412.
DEBTORS, ii. 323 n.
Decumbent, i. 81.
DEDICATIONS, i. 405.
DE FOE, Daniel, i. 332 ; ii. 90 n.
DELANY, Rev. Dr. Patrick, ii. 54.
DELANY, Mrs., i. 293 n.
480
Index.
Delap, Rev. Dr Dyott, General.
DELAP, Rev. Dr., i. 234, 423.
DELICACY, i. 326, 329.
DEMOSTHENES, i. 378.
DENHAM, Sir John, i. 417 n.
DENMARK, King of, i. 183.
DENNIS, John, ii. i8n.} 371.
DENNY, — , ii. 52.
DE QUINCEY, Thomas, Hannah More,
ii. 178 ; Henderson, ii. 198 n. ; Hart
ley, ii. 304 n.
Derange, ii. 20.
DESCARTES, i. 417^.
DESMOULINS, John, ii. 154-6, 159,
386.
DESMOULINS, Mrs., i. 88, 95, 105-6,
205 n., 248 n. ; ii. 217, 411 n.
Dessert, i. lion.
DEVIL TAVERN, i. 433 ; ii. 99, 378.
DEVONPORT, ii. 419.
DEVONSHIRE, fifth Duke of, ii. 241 n.,
326 n.
DEVONSHIRE, Duchess of, ii. 326 n.
Diacodium, i. 102 n.
DICKENS, Charles, i. 179 n.
Dictionary, Johnson's, undertaken and
progress, i. 14, 382, 388, 403-7; ii.
94, 106 n., 374 ; Plan, i. 383 ; "• 347;
second edition, i. 404 n. ; revised, i. 63,
182, 298 n. ; ii. 227 ; definitions, i.
182 n., 472 ». ; ii. 50, 278; authors
quoted, i. 272 ; effect on Johnson's
style, i. 466 ; described by Percy, ii.
213 ; edition after Johnson's death, i.
356 n. ; ' naughty words,' ii. 390 ;
ocean, ii. 404.
DIDEROT, Denys, ii. 249 n.
DIDOT, ii. 22 n.
Dies Ira, i. 284.
DIGBY, Mrs., ii. 390.
DILLY, Charles, i. 71 ; ii. 21, 35, 47-9,
72, 283 »., 458.
DILWORTH, — , i. 464 n.
Dinarbas, ii. 171 n.
DINGLEY, Mrs., ii. 331.
DINNER, i. 249.
DIOGENES, ii. 103.
Diversion, i. 324.
DIXIE, Sir Wolstan, i. 364.
DIXON, Rev. Canon, ii. 198 n.
DOBLE, Charles Edward, i. 11472.
DODD, Rev. William, D.D., i. 181, 432,
486 ; ii. 14, 131 n., 143 n., 282-4, 3*9,
362, 418.
DODINGTON, Bubb (Lord Melcombe), ii.
104.
DODSLEY, Robert, i. 4i5«. ; ii. 16, 341,
39° »•
Dog, i. 245.
DOGS, digestion of, ii. 405.
Don Quixote, i. 332, 478.
DONALDSON, Alexander, ii. 443 n.
DONNE, Dr., i. 478 ; ii. 404.
Dose, ii. 321 n.
DOUGHTY, William, ii. 10.
DOUGLAS, John, D.D., Bishop of Car
lisle and afterwards of Salisbury,
Swift's History, i. 188 «. ; ' Detector of
quacks,' i. 397, ii. 356 ; Johnson's friend,
i. 416 ; Literary Club, ii. 26 ; Cock
Lane Ghost, ii. 355 n. \ mentioned, i.
289 n.
DOUGLAS, Dr., ii. 60.
Down, i. 169 ; ii. 261.
DRAWING-ROOM, i. 293 n.
DREAMS, i. u, 23, 159.
DRESS, i. 221, 336-8.
Dressed, i. 260 n.
Drony, i. 219.
DRUJININE, ii. 147 n.
DRURY LANE THEATRE, i. 385.
DRYDEN, Erasmus Henry, ii. 177.
DRYDEN, John, Absalom and Achitophel,
i. 468 n. ; All for Love, i. 281 n. ; at
tacks, i. 271 n. ; coffee-house, i. 434 ;
copy-right, ii. 442 «. ; description of
night, i. 1 86 ; foreign words, i. 467 ;
greatness, i. 185 n. ; metaphysical
poets, i. 478 n. ; Milton, epigram on,
i. 196 ; (Edipus, ii. 62 ; Preface to
Fables, i. 407 n.; prologues, ii. 239;?.;
prose style, i. 466; puns, ii. 18 n. ;
quoted, ii. 350; son's nurse, ii. 177;
writing for money, ii. 91 n.
DUBLIN, Trinity College, Johnson seeks
a degree, i. 373 ; — one conferred, i.
423 ; ii. 29 ; — and the steward, ii.
30 n. ; invitation to Baretti, ii. 40 ; Dr.
Madan's premiums, ii. 211.
DUTCH, ii. 154.
DYCE, Alexander, i. 474 n.
DYER, Samuel, i. 214 n., 230, 389 ; ii. 80.
DYOTT, General, i.
Index.
481
Easton Mauduit Foote, Samuel.
E.
EASTON MAUDUIT, ii. 64.
EDGCUMBE, Sir Pearce, i. 421.
EDGEWORTH, Maria, patronage of
fashion, i. 287 n. ; improving after
forty-five, ii. 262 n. ; Absentee, ii.
414 n.
EDGEWORTH, Professor, ii. 414 n.
EDGEWORTH, R. L., ii. 414 n.
EDINBURGH FRIDAY CLUB, i. 230 n.
EDUCATION, i. 281, 295; ii. 9, 301.
EDWARDS, Rev. Dr. Edward, ii. 197 n.,
199, 400 n.
EDWARDS, Oliver, i. 83.
EDWARDS, Thomas, i. 274*.
EDWARDS, — , ii. 21.
Eikon Basilike, i. 394.
ELIOT, first Lord, ii. 32, 137 n., 458.
ELIOT, — , a barrister, ii. 258.
ELIZABETH, Queen, ii. 387.
ELLIOT, Sir John, M.D., i. 431 n.
ELLIOTT, George Augustus (Lord Heath-
field), i. 242.
ELLIS, John, ii. 324 n.
ELLIS, Joshua, ii. 85 n.
ELLIS, Mrs. Raine, i. 293 n. ; ii. 18 n.
ELLIS, Viner, ii. 85 n.
ELPHINSTONE, James, i. 188, 205 n.,
319 «., 419 n.
Eminent, i. 300.
ENGLAND, in 1782, ii. 56 n.
Englishman at Paris, i. 216.
EPITAPHS, i. 238 n. ; ii. 373.
ERASMUS, ii. 12, u6«., 123, 340, 346.
ERSKINE, Lord Chancellor, ii. 30.
Esdras, i. 62.
ESTE, Cardinal d', ii. 366.
EUGENE, Prince, ii. 51.
EURIPIDES, i. 191 ; ii. 70.
EVANS, Rev. Mr., i. 253.
EVELYN, John, i. 133^.
Except ed, i. 297 n.
EXECUTIONS, ii. 283 n., 284*., 418.
EXERCISE, i. 288.
F.
FABRICIUS, ii. 123.
FADEN, — , i. 447; ii. 412.
FAIRFAX, Edward, ii. 145.
Falkland's Islands, i. 426, 474 ; ii. 424-
False Alarm, i. 173, 425, 474; ii. 46 ».
VOL. II.
FAMILY DISPUTES, ii. 17.
FANTOCCINI, i. 421.
FARMER, Rev. Richard, D.D., ii. 68,
392.
FARQUHAR, George, ii. 49.
FARR, Dr., ii. 420.
FAULKNER, George, ii. 437.
FAWKES, Francis, i. 176.
FEAR, i. 330.
FENTON, Elijah, i. 155, 359; ii. 375.
FERGUSSON, Dr. Adam, i. 188, 419.
FERGUSSON, Sir Adam, i. 22O«.
FEUDAL TIMES, i. 350.
Fiat experimentum, &c., ii. 4.
FlDDES, Richard, i. 72.
FIELDING, Henry, compared with
Richardson, i. 282; ii. 190; debtors'
prison, ii. 323 ». ; 'goodness of heart,'
i. 441 ; Russian translation, ii. 237 n. ;
Amelia, i. 297, 319 «., 371 n. ; Joseph
Andrews, i. 136 n,, 253 «., 293 «. ;
ii. 260 «., 341 ; Tom Jones, i. 137 n.,
163 n., 228 »., 384 «., 441 n., 465 n. ;
ii. 15*., 95*., 346*-
FIELDS, James T., ii. 453 ».
FIELDS, Mrs. James T., i. 371 «.; ii.
133 ».
FIGG, the prize-fighter, i. 149 n.
FISHER, Dr., ii. 407.
FITZGERALD, Edward, ii. 165 n., 191 n.
FITZHERBERT, William, i. 256, 327 n.,
416 ; ii. 392 ».
FITZHERBERT, Mrs., i. 255.
FITZROY, Lady, ii. 261 n.
FLATTERY, i. 272 ; ii. 224.
FLEETWOOD, Bishop, ii. 147*
FLEETWOOD, Charles, i. 369.
FLETCHER, Mrs., i. 105 *.
FLINT, Bet, i. 226 *.
FLINT, — , ii. 452.
FLORUS, Lucius, i. 294.
FLOYER, Sir John, i. 444 «.
FLUDYER, Rev. John, ii. .199 n.
FONTENELLE, Descartes and Newton, i.
417; 'embalmed the dead/ i. 434;
£loge de Newton, ii. 360.
FONTENOY, i. 203 n.
FOOTE, Samuel, compared with Garrick,
ii. 238, 240; dinner at his house, i.
378 ; infidel, i. 21 1 n. ; Johnson threatens
him, i. 424 ; ii. 345 5 Macklin, ii. 2 *.;
I i
482
Index.
Toote, Samuel Garrick, David.
rising in the world, i. 424 ; ii. 4 ;
stories, i. 225, 265; wit, ii. 6.
Foppish, i. 214.
FORBES, Bishop, ii. 466.
FORBES, Sir William, Bart., i. 233 n. \
ii. 185 n., 195.
FORD, Cornelius, i. 149, 359.
FORD, Rev. Cornelius, i. 154, 359, 360;
ii. 88, 209 «.
FORD, Nathaniel, ii. 88 n.
FORD, Mrs. Nathaniel, i. 131, 139.
FORD, Sarah, i. 139.
FORDYCE, Dr. George, ii. 26, 137 n.
FORSTER, John, ii. 73.
FORT AUGUSTUS, i. 80.
FORT George, i. 182 n. •
FORTESCUE, Sir John, ii. 20.
FOSTER, Elizabeth, i. 397.
FOSTER, Rev. Dr. James, ii. 41.
FOUNTAIN TAVERN, i. 369.
FOWKE, Joseph, ii. 349 n.
Fox, Charles James, Literary Club, i.
202, 229^. ; ii. 25 «., 30, 32, 137 «.;
descended from Charles II, ii. 31 n. ;
law of libels, ii. 36 n. ; Garrick's guest,
ii. 245 n. ; Wealth of Nations, ii. 424 n. ;
Indian Bill, ii. 458 n.
Fox, Henry, first Lord Holland, i. 240 n.
Fox, John, i. 414 n.
FRACASTORIUS, i. 366.
FRANCE, Academy, i. 183, 404, 434;
extremes, ii. 289 ; horse-race, ii. 289,
291 ; invasion threatened, i. 203 ; ii.
377' 45°; literature, i. 216, 334; ii.
289; Johnson's prejudices, ii. 226;
meals, i. 216 n.; prisoners, ii. 370.
FRANCIS, Rev. Dr. Philip, i. 378.
FRANKLIN, Benjamin, change of style,
i. 129 n. ; dedications, i. 405 n. ;
Mandeville, i. 207 n. ; printing, ii.
22«. ; thankfulness, i. 107 n.\ West
Indians, ii. 302 n.
FRASER of Strichen, i. 324 n.
FREDERICK II, King of Prussia, dressed
plain, i. 221 n. ; Johnson downed
Robertson with him, i. 169 ». ; —
wrote his Life, i. 464 ; Raynal, i. 212 «.
FREDERICK, Prince of Wales, ii. 5».
FREEWILL, ii. 233, 256.
FREIND, Dr., ii. 378.
FRERON, ii. 308.
FRIENDS, laughing at absent, ii. 50 ;
friendship to be kept in repair, ii. 69 n.
Fuller's Worthies, i. 444 n.
Fun, i. 170 n.
Furmenty, ii. 163.
G.
GALEN, i. 90 n., 260 n.
GALGACUS, i. 430.
Gamble, ii. 28 n.
Gambler, i. 182.
GARDENS, i. 323.
GARDINER, Mrs., i. 80; ii. 147, 155-6,
158-9-
GARRETSON, — , i. 137.
GARRICK, Captain, i. 367.
GARRICK, David, Barnard's lines, ii. 265 ;
Boswell's shoeblack, ii. 2 26 n. ; Camden,
Lord, ii. 63 ; Chesterfield, Lord, i.
406 n. ; Comus, i. 397 ; Congreve and
Shakespeare, i. 186 ; conversation, ii.
235; death,i. 276 «.; ii. 416 ».; Drury
Lane, i. 385; Dryden praised, i. 185;
fame, ii. 237, 244, 332 ; flattery, love
of, ii. 430; friends, ii. 246; funeral,
ii. 241 n., 379 n. ; grave, i. 449; ii.
T37> 378; Hogarth's epitaph, i. 240;
JOHNSON, arguing, ii. 218 n. ; — and
Beauclerk, i. 383 n. ; — compared
with Shakespeare, i. 387 ; — Dialogues,
ii. 233-49 ; — dines with him, i. 424 ;
— epitaph on him, i. 445 ; ii. 123 ; —
house, ii. 394 ; — humour, i. 345 ; -
inattention, ii. 277; — Irene, i. 386;
— Lichfield theatre, i. 224 ; ii. H4«.;
— , mimics, ii. 23 n., 195, 211 ; —
offers to write his Life, i. 458 ; — and
Percy, ii. 68 ; — pleasure, greatest, ii.
45 5 — property, ii. 50, 233, 249 «. ;
— prophecy, ii. 315 ; — Prologue,
i. 385; ii. 314; — Punch, i. 457; ii.
248, 317; — pupil, i. 367; ii. 237;
— rare copies of Shakespeare, ii. 327^.,
357 w., 394; — rudeness, ii. 258; —
silence about him, ii. 326; — wife,
i. 248, 376 ; ii. 102 ; liberality, i. 457 ;
ii. 194, 238, 249 ; Literary Club, ii.
26 n., 196 ; London, comes to, i. 368 ;
ii. 341 ; manners, ii. 242 ; mimicry,
i. 287 n. ; ii. 240 ; Montagu, Mrs., ii.
307 n. ; More, Hannah, ii. 177, 184,
Index.
483
Garrick, David Goldsmith, Oliver.
186, 188, 194 n.', plots, ii. 245;
portrait, i. 265 n., 342 n. ; prologues,
ii. 239; Prospero, i. 179, 456 ; raised
the rank of a player, ii. 241, 430;
Shakespeare's mulberry, ii. 429 ; Stock-
dale, ii. 330; studied his art, ii. 318;
unspoiled, ii. 332; Whig, i. 172;
Williams, Miss, i. 403; ii. 173 n.;
mentioned, i. 351 «., 405, 408, 421 ;
ii. 368.
GARRICK, George, i. 285 n., 454.
GARRICK, Mrs. (Garrick's mother), ii.
237> 3i5-
GARRICK, Mrs. (Garrick's wife), i. 458 ;
ii. 23 n., 177, 184, 186, 187 n., 191,
194, 429.
GARRICK, Peter, i. 369 n.
GARTH, Sir Samuel, i. 223 n. ; ii. 136 n.
GASTRELL, Mrs., i. 107; ii. 4I3~5> 4l8»
429 n.
GAY, John, i. 30, 258, 479 ; 11. 33* »•
GENIUS, i. 314; ii. 264, 287.
GENTILITY, i. 253-4, 423 n.
Gentleman's Magazine, i. 369, 377, 379,
380 n., 446; ii. 80, 412.
GEORGE I, Oxford and Cambridge, i.
171 ; Shippen and Walpole, ii. 306 n. ;
' a robber,' ii. 466.
GEORGE II, sublime strut, i. 183 n. ;
literature in his reign, ii. 7 n. ; Trini
tarian controversy, ii. 3°5 5 * a fo°V "•
466.
GEORGE III, no traveller, i. 52 n.', read
YiozTX-i, Anecdotes, \. 143; sub-preceptor,
i. iSon.; Johnson's interviews,!. iSin.,
424; ii. 15 n., 38, 69 «., 192, 344,
354, 372 "•'•> — pension, i. 417; »•
i go, 350; — application for increase,
i. 442-3; ii. 150, 369 n., 388, 459;
Lady Sarah Lennox, ii. 31 n. ; madness,
ii. 398 n. ; physicians, ii. 158 n. ; Garrick,
ii. 249 n. ; neglected Reynolds, ii. 401 ;
Coalition Ministry, ii. 458 «.; treated
with indecency, ii. 458 n. ; unpopularity,
ii. 347 n. ; pensions, ii. 355 n. ; ' idiot,
ii. 466.
GEORGE IV, Johnson kept waiting for
his dinner, i." 150 n, ;— questioned him
ii. 118; present at a prize-fight, i
475 n. ; spoke highly of a man, ii. 69
his preceptor, ii. 191 n.
GHOSTS, i. 278, 455 ; ii. 234, 354.
ilBBON, Edward, the historian's father,
ii. 306 «.
GIBBON, Edward, alchemy, i. 307 n. ;
Barnard, Dean, ii. 263, 265 ; common
place topics, ii. 101 n. ; dedication,
i. 405 n. ; Francis, Dr., i. 378 n. ;
Hayley, ii. 420 n. ; Horsley, i. 106 «. ;
Inquisition, i. 215 «.; Johnson and
Fox, i. 202 n. ; — Irene, i. 386 n. ; —
Reynolds's Dialogue, ii. 233, 237-49 ;
libraries, i. 425 n. ; Liskard, ii. 458 n. ;
Literary Club, ii. 67 n., 137 n.\ Lowth,
Bishop, i. 366 n.', More, Hannah, ii.
188, 194, 232 n.; Ossory, Lord, ii.
23 n.', Oxford, ii. 313 «. ; payments
for History, ii. 349 ; pirates of Dublin,
ii. 437 n. ; Pritchard, Mrs., ii. 248 n. ;
Reply to Davis, ii. 66 ; Roman Catholic,
i. 15 n. ; Sarpi, Paolo, ii. 345 n. ;
ugliness, i. 2 1 1 n. ; ii. 67 n.
GIBRALTAR, i. 109 »., 143, 242.
Gil Bias, i. 457^.
GILMAN, — , i. 133**.
Gladiolus Scriptorius. i. 140.
GLADSTONE, Right Hon. W. E., ii. 92 n.
TviaOi ffeavTov, i. 409.
GODWIN, William, i. 156^.
GOETHE, first sight of the sea, i. 52 n. ;
training of actors, ii. 249 n. ; a roaming
life, ii. 2547*.
GOLDSMITH, Rev. Henry, ii. 371 n.
GOLDSMITH, Oliver, autograph letter,
i. 227».; Berlin, ii. 441 ».; death,
i. 99 ». ; Deserted Village, ii. 324 n.;
Dr. Minor, i. 270; envy, i. 421;
Goodman Dull, i. 270 ; Good Natured
Man, i. 311; Goody Two Shoes, i.
156 «. ; grave, i. 449 «.; Haunch of
Venison, ii. I2O«. ; histories, ii. ion.;
improvidence, ii. 424 «.; JOHNSON
apologizes to him, i. 453 n. ; — bio
grapher, i. 166; — , claim on, i.
488 n. ; — , contests with, i. 269 ; ii.
93 «•> 367 5 — Dictionary, ii. 350; —
epitaph, i. 239, 482 ».; ii. 379 5 —
friendship, i. 421 ; — monk, i. 2io«.;
— overawed him, ii. 270; — Parnel's
epitaph, ii. 293; — praises him, ii. 49;
— Rambler, ii. 351 ; — roughness, ii.
296 n. ; Life, i. 272 n. ; Literary Club,
I 1 2
484
Index.
Goldsmith, Oliver Harcourt, Lord.
i. 230, 269 n.y 420 ; mutual friend, ii.
219 n. ; pension, no, ii. 355 n. ; portrait,
i. 342 n. ; ii. 269 ; poverty, ii. 371 n. ;
Retaliation, ii. 64, 182, 239, 246,
262 n. ; She Stoops to Conquer, ii. 73,
318; solitary pleasures, i. 220 n. ;
Sterne, i. 334 «. ; ii. 270 «., 320 w. ;
Temple's and Tillotson's styles, i. 466 n. ;
Traveller, i. 454 «. ; ii. 6, 223, 235,
268, 466 ; ugly, ii. 268 ; Ursa Minor,
ii. 270; Vicar of Wakefield, i. 227 ;
Warburton, ii. 331 ; white lies, ii. 223 ;
Williams, Miss, ii. 173; mentioned,
i. 21472. ; ii. 17972., 232 n., 248 n.
CONGO RA, ii. 441.
GORDON, Sir A., i. 430 n.
GORDON, General C. G., ii. 93 n.
GORING, Charles, i. 369 n.
Gothic, i. 478 ; ii. 230, 266.
GOUT, i. 276.
Government of the Tongue, i. 87 n.
GOWER, first Earl, i. 373, 472 n. ; ii. 361.
Graces, The, ii. 52.
GRAFTON, third Duke of, i. 203 n.
GRAHAM, Rev. George, i. 270.
GRAINGER, Dr. James, ii. 216, 265.
GRANBY, Marquis of, ii. 172 n.
GRAND CHARTREUX, i. 263.
GRAVES, — , a hop-merchant, ii. 274 n.
GRAY, Thomas, Churchill more in vogue,
ii. 354 n. ; Colman's Odes, ii. 320 ;
Elegy, i. 438 ; ii. 52, 268 n.; father, ii.
324 «.; Garrick's epilogues, ii. 240 n.\
Grande Chartreuse, i. 263 n. ; Johnson,
Life by, i. 479; ii. 371-2, 420; —
parody, i. 191 ; — Ursa Major, ii.
270*2. ; reading and writing, ii. 73 n. ;
Smith, Adam, ii. 321 n. ; travels, i.
476.
Gray's Inn Journal, i. 306 »., 408 ; ii.
35i.
GREATRAKES, Valentine, ii. 338 n.
GREAVES, Samuel, i. in n., 440; ii. 449.
Greek, i. 253 n.
GREEN, Bishop, ii. 340.
GREEN, Richard, Anecdotes, ii. 397-399.
GREEN, Thomas (of Ipswich) , Anecdotes,
ii. 399.
GRENVILLE, Right Hon. George, i. 254^.
GREVILLE, C. C., ii. 207.
GREVILLE, F., ii. 298 n.
GREY, second Earl, i. 104 n.
GREY, Dr. Zachary, i. 289 n.
GRIERSON, — , i. 226.
GRIMM, Baron, ii. 282 n.
GROSVENOR SQUARE, ii. 192.
GROTE, George, i. 230 n.
GROTE, Mrs., i. 230 n.
GROTIUS, i. 71 «., 81 n., 157, 419, 445 n.\
ii. 123, 297.
GRUB STREET, i. 414.
GUADAGNI, i. 197 n.
GUSTAVUS VASA, i. 380.
GUTHRIE, William, i. 378 ; ii. 92, 343.
GWATKIN, Miss, ii. 219.
GWATKIN, R. L., ii. 219 n.
GWYNN, John, ii. 406.
GWYNN, Mrs., ii. 232 n.
GWYNNE, Nell, ii. 150 n.
H.
HACKET, Bishop, i. 84 n.
HADDON, Walter, i. no«.
HAILES, Lord, ii. 466.
HAIR, growth of, i. 91.
HALIFAX, Lord, i. 401.
HALL, Rev. G. W., D.D., ii. 460 n.
HALL, Mrs., i. 98; ii. 147, 154 n.
HAMILTON, Archibald, i. 412 n., 430,
447-
HAMILTON, Miss, ii. 201.
HAMILTON, Right Hon. William Gerard,
Johnson engaging in politics, i. 36 ;
— hunting, i. 288 ; — death, ii. 19 n. ;
— Life, ii. 34; — , visits, ii. 22 in.;
Junius, i. 172^. ; mentioned, i. 105 ;
ii. 133 «.
HAMILTON, Sir William, ii. 137 n.
HAMMOND, Henry, D.D., i.'ioo, 107;
ii. 19.
HAMMOND, James, ii. 371.
HAMPDEN, Bishop, ii. 328 n.
HAMPDEN, John, i. 483 n.
HAMPSTEAD, ii. 313, 328 n.
HANDEL, ii. 103 n., 305 n.
HANMER, Sir Thomas, i. 381, 382 «. ;
ii. 114.
HANOVERIAN FAMILY, ii. 347, 467.
HANWAY, Jonas, i. 414; ii. 364.
HAPPINESS,I. 334; ii. 13.
HARBOROUGH, Earl of, ii. 70.
HARCOURT, Lord, ii. 59 n.
Index.
485
Hardinge, George Holyday, Barten.
HARDINGE, George, ii. 316.
HARRINGTON, James, ii. 97.
HARRIOTS, Mrs., i. 56, 132.
HARRIS, James, i. 187; ii. 70, 188, 272,
344-
HARRISON, — (Johnson's uncle), i. 139.
HART, J., i. 30.
HARTLEY, David, M.D., ii. 304.
HARWOOD, Dr. Edward, ii. 61, 429.
HARWOOD, Rev. Thomas, ii. 410 n.
HASTINGS, Warren, ii. 22, 362.
HATCH, Rev. Edwin, D.D., ii. 198 n.
HAWKESWORTH, John, LL.D., Adven
turer, i. 403 ; Cook's Voyages, ii. 349 n. ;
coxcomb, ii. 298 ; death, i. 274 n. ;
Debates, i. 380 ; ii. 343 ; dispute with
Hawkins, ii. 80; Ivy Lane Club, i.
388; Johnson's early life, i. 166 ; —
wife, i. 399 ; ii. 102 ; — ' school,' ii.
359 ; manners, i. 210 ».; Ode an Life,
i. 360 n. ; ii. 167.
HAWKINS, Sir Christopher, ii. 22.
HAWKINS, Henry, ii. 139.
HAWKINS, Sir John, Addison's style, i.
470 n.\ Boswell, ii. 144; character, ii.
79-83, 297; Devil Tavern, ii. 99;
Essex Head Club, ii. 221 n. ; History
of Musi$, ii. 79 ; Ivy Lane Club, i. 389 ;
Johnson, chemistry, i. 420 ; — diary,
ii. 86 n., 129; — executor, ii. 81,
380 n. ; — humour, ii. 98 n.; — Life,
i-357; "• 79~i 38, 346; — andMadan,
ii. 267 n. ; — pension, i. 418 ; — Ras-
selas, i. 471; — sacrament, ii. 128;
— tea, i. 414 n. ; — will, ii. 121, 124,
132, 148-50 ; Literary Club, i. 230,
420 ; malignity, i. 389, 395, 430, 440 ;
ii. 155 n. ; Person, ii. 81 ; Richardson,
ii. 190 n. ; unclubable, ii. 100 n. ; Wal
ton, ii. 468; mentioned, ii. 158-9, 204.
HAWKINS, Lady, ii. 140, 298.
HAWKINS, Miss, i. 440 n. ; ii. 86 ».,
130 n., 173 n., 329 ».; Anecdotes, ii.
139-144.
HAWKINS, — , i. 138, 360.
HAY, Sir George, D.C.L., ii. 439.
HAYES, Rev. Samuel, i. 476.
HAYLEY, William, ii. 420.
HAYNAU, Marshal, ii. 218.
HAYTER, Sir George, ii. 16472.
HAZLITT, William, ii. 72, 189 n.
HEAD, Sir Francis, i. 365 «.
HEARNE, Thomas, i. 133 n.
HEATH, J., ii. 465.
HEBER, Bishop Reginald, ii. 193 «.
HEBERDEN, William, M.D., i. 1 1 1 , 199 n.,
439> 445 5 "• 7 n-> I36» I5°t J54 n->
221, 311, 323, 386, 388, 399 n.
HECTOR, Edmund, Johnson's school
fellow, i. 101, 129 n., 136 n.\ ii. 84;
— verses, i. 167; — amanuensis, i. 178,
365 ; — boyhood, i. 360 ». ; — at
College, i. 362 n.\ — oatmeal break
fasts, ii. 334 n.\ mentioned, i. 105-7;
ii. 133, 270 n.
HECTOR, George, i. 129.
HELVICUS, Christopher, i. 136, 140.
HENDERSON, John (of Pembroke Col
lege), ii. 197.
HENDERSON, John (the actor), ii. 77 n.,
318,411.
HENRY IV OF FRANCE, i. 134 «.,
273 n.
HENRY VIII, ii. i.
HENRY, Dr. Robert, ii. 90 n.
HERCULES, i. 180.
HEREFORD, Dean of, ii. 328 n.
Hermit of Teneriffe, ii. 343.
HERSCHEL, Sir F. W., i. 197 n.
HERVEY, Lord, i. 135 n.\ ii. 105 n.
HERVEY, Hon. Henry, i. 254 n. ; ii.
4J3-4-
HERVEY, Hon. Thomas, i. 254 ; ii. 114.
Hissy, ii. 54.
HISTORY, i. 201-3.
History of the Council of Trent, i.
370-
HOADLEY, Bishop, ii. 375-
HOARDING, i. 251.
HOBBES, Thomas, ii. 287 n.
HODGE, i. 247 »., 318.
HODGES, Dr. Nathaniel, i. 435 5 ii- 9°-
HODY, Dr., ii. 376.
HOGARTH, William, Modern Midnight
Conversation, i. 154, 359 ; epitaph, i.
239 ; Thrale, Mrs., i. 240 ; Johnson,
i. 240-1 ; ii. 400 n. ; portrait of J.
Porter, i. 248 n. ; genius, ii. 288 n.
HOLBROOK, — , i. 138-9-
HOLLAND, third Lord, ii. 421 n.
HOLLIS, Thomas, i. 398 n., 487 n.
HOLYDAY, Barten, ii. 387.
486
Index.
Home, John Jeffrey, Francis.
HOME, John, ii. 355 n.
HOMER'S Iliad, i. 332.
HOOL, — , i. 137.
HOOLE, John, i. n^n. ; ii. 124, 129,
171 n., 200, 324/2., 362, 381, 385,
388, 409, 455 n. ; Anecdotes, ii. 145-
160.
HOOLE, Mrs., ii. 150, 155-9.
HOOLE, Rev. Samuel, ii. 152, 156-7,
160.
HOPE, i. 278 ; ii. i.
HORACE, Odes, i. 308 «.; ii.86«., 337;
Satires, i. 5, 458; ii. 18 «., 234 n.,
346 ; Epistles, i. 358, 397, 434, 437 ;
ii- 2I5> 373 ; Johnson's scruple, i. 93 ;
metres, ii. 407.
HORNE, Bishop, ii. 468.
HORNER, Francis, Johnson's style, i.
467 «. ; John Henderson, ii. 197 n.
HORSEMAN, — , i. 388.
HORSLEY, Bishop, i. 106-7 ; ii. 221 n.
Hottentot, i. 384.
HOUGHTON, Lord, i. 259 n.
HOWARD, John, ii. 324 «.
HUDSON, Thomas, i. 240.
HUET, Bishop, ii, 229 «., 380.
HUMANE SOCIETY, ii. 36.
HUME, Sir Abraham, ii. 24.
HUME, David, accused of grossness, ii.
320 n.; America, ii. 53 ». ; attacks, i.
271 n. ; civil employments, i. 17 w. ;
confuted, ii. 437 ; copy-right, ii. 442 n. ;
eminent, i. 300 n. ; History, corrections,
ii. 73 n. ; — , payments for, ii. 349 n. ;
infidel, i. 211 n. ; ii. 125 n. ; Johnson,
ii. 98 n. ; King's chaplain, ii. 67 ;
king's evil, i. 134 ». ; Macpherson's
History, ii. 39 ; men of letters, ii.
104 n, ; miracles, i. 243 n. ; pension,
ii-355«-; purgatory, i. 14 n.\ Spenser,
i. 190 n. ; stories, i. 225 ».; style, ii. 10,
48; suicide, defence of, ii. 10; men
tioned, ii. 74, 298 n.
HUMFREY, Rev. Cave, i. I29».
HUMPHRY, Ozias R., Anecdotes, ii. 400-2.
HUNT, Leigh, i. 371 n. ; ii. 132 n.
HUNTER, John, ii. no.
HUNTER, William, i. 103; ii. no.
HUNTER — (Johnson's schoolmaster), i.
140, 159, 361 ; ii. 414, 426 w.
HUNTING, ii. 170, 405.
KURD, Richard, Bishop of Worcester, i.
381 n., 469 «.
HUSBANDS, J., ii. 340.
HUSSEY, Rev. John, i. 82 n., 184 n.,
217 n., 257 n., 372 «., 373 n., 374 n.,
384 «., 406 n. ; ii. 6 «., 7 n.
HUTCHINSON, Dr. John Hely, ii. 183.
HUTTON, William, ii. 392 n.
HUTTON, Rev. W. H., i. 120 n.
I.
Idler, i. 178, 415, 470; ii. 107, 351.
IMAGINATION, ii. 288.
IMPROVING AFTER FORTY-FIVE, ii. 262.
IMPROVISATION, i. 260 ; ii. 10.
INDEPENDENT CHURCH, ii. 218.
INFINITY, i. 200.
INFLUENCE, ii. 55.
INGRATITUDE, i. 206.
INNOVATION, i. 345.
INNS, ii. 253.
INNYS, William, ii. 125.
IRELAND AND IRISH, compared with the
Scotch, i. 427; ii. 226; disturbances
in 1781, ii. 54-7; Johnson's kindness
for the Irish, ii. 41 n.\ scholars, ii. 48 ;
Wood's pence, ii. 267 n.
Irene, i. 253 n,, 369, 386, 461 ; 11.9, 112,
34i-
Irreparable, i. 302.
IRVING, Sir Henry, i. 304 n.
ISLINGTON, ii. 148.
J.
JACKSON, Dr. Henry, i. 89 n.
JACKSON, Richard, ii. 6.
JACKSON, Thomas, i. 135, 164 n.
Jacobite Lairds of Cask, ii. 466.
JAMAICA, i. 30 n. ; ii. 302 n.
JAMES I, ii. 70.
JAMES, 'King,' i. 171 n. • ii. 306 n.
JAMES, Rev. John, ii. 21 n., 313 n.
JAMES, Robert, M.D., i. 166, 276, 414 n.;
ii. 45.
JANSENISTS, ii. 200.
JARVIS, Captain, ii. 173.
JAY, Cyrus, ii. 91 w.
JAY, Rev. William, ii. 207 n.
JEBB, Sir Richard, M.D., i. 331.
JEFFERSON, Thomas, ii. 2 n.
JEFFREY, Francis, i. 230 n. ; ii. 59 «.
Index.
487
Jeffry, Miss Johnson, Samuel.
JEFFRY, Miss, ii. 49.
JENKINS, Henry, ii. 336.
JENNY, the dying, i. 124.
JENNY'S WHIM, ii. 172.
JENYNS, Soame, i. 200, 464.
JEPHSON, Robert, ii. 46 n.t 182 n.
JESUITS, i. 215 ; ii. 200.
JODDREL, R. P., ii. 70, 221 H.
Johnny Armstrong, i. 480.
JOHNSON, Andrew (Dr. Johnson's uncle),
i. 130 «., 149, 359»453-
JOHNSON, Avice, i. 13072.
JOHNSON, Catherine (Dr. Johnson's grand
mother), i. 129 n.
JOHNSON, Edith, i. 130^.
JOHNSON, Elizabeth (Dr. Johnson's wife),
account of her by Hawkins, ii. 101 ;
— by Johnson, i. 247-50 ; — by Miss
Williams, ii. 173 ; critic, i. 258 ; death,
i. 4»., 10-12, 59, 74, 84, 98, 257, 399 ;
"• 3r7» 359, 360; — resolves on her
coffin, i. 25 ; — , sermon, i. 476 ; —
epitaph, i. 399 ; — anniversary, i. 14,
16, 19, 21, 27, 38, 51, 77, 86, 106;
— commended, i. 14, 15, 24, 29, 41,
65, 80, 89, 107, 399 ; fortune, i. 367 ;
Garrick's mimicry, i. 248, 376; ii.
211 ; Johnson's cup, sells, i. 135; — ,
reported separation from, i. 376; jealous
of Molly Aston, i. 255 ; lodgings at
Hampstead, ii. 313; portrait, i. 248 n.;
son, ii. 173. See also under JOHNSON,
wife.
JOHNSON, Elizabeth (Reynolds's sister),
ii. 456 n.
JOHNSON, Esther (Stella), ii. 331, 343 n.
JOHNSON, Isaac, i. 134.
JOHNSON, Michael (Dr. Johnson's father),
apprenticeship, i. 130 n. ; birth, i.
129 n., 150 n. ; ' foolish old man,' i.
J53 n" >' ' gentleman,' ii. 339 ; Hector's
account of him, ii. 84 n. ; melancholy,
i. 148,358; ii. 257; parchment fact6ry,
ii. 422 ; property, i. 5, 363 ; sheriff, i.
129, 359; son's disobedience, ii. 427 ;
tea,i. 135 ; trade, i. 133, 154; vanity, i.
132, 139-
JOHNSON, Nathaniel (Dr. Johnsons
brother),!. 23, 150, 152,359-
JOHNSON, Samuel (several of that name),
i. I30«., 275, 305.
JOHNSON, Samuel, Academy at Edial, i.
367 ; accounts, i. 32 ; admirer of good-
breeding, ii. 114; affectation, freedom
from, ii. 299 ; agriculture, knowledge
of, ii. 117 ; ancestry, i. 129, 154, 211 n.;
Annals, i. 127-40; ii. 86, 129, 379
(see infra under JOURNAL) ; apolo
gized, never, for external circumstances,
ii. 260; Appleby School, i. 373; ar
guing (see infra under CON VERSATION ) j
arithmetic, i. 200 ; attacks (see under
ATTACKS) ; attendance required, i. 329,
340 ; authors, assistance to,i. 103, 106,
332 ; ii. 7, 362 ; — , begged for poor,
i. 226, 228; — , consulted by, ii. 192 j
autographs, i. 4, 462 n. ; ii. 460 ; bath
ing, ii. 428; Beaconsfield, visits,!. 309;
Bible, studies the,i. 52, 39, 55, 59, 61,
64, 81, 1 06-7 ; — believes nothing but
it, i. 241 ; biographers, i. 147, 165 ; ii.
379 ; biography, love for, i. 201 «.,
451 ; ii. 8 ; Birmingham, i. 139, 364 ;
birth, i. 129, 358; birth-day, i. 6, 47,
67, 92, 100, 291 (see also under
PRAYERS) ; blesses Mr. Barclay, ii. 390 ;
'blinking Sam,' i. 313; bookbinding,
i. 361 ; Bosworth School, i. 6, 364; ii.
340 n. ; boxing, i. 149 ; bringing him
out, ii. 233 ; buffoonery, i. 287 ; bull,
guilty of a, ii. 314; Caliban, ii. 348;
candid, i. 357 ; caricatured, ii. 420;
carriage, love of a, i. 329 ; carving, ii.
298; casuist, ii. 366; cat, his, i. 318 ;
ceremonies, i. 318; chair, ii. 380;
characters of others, i. 280, 347 ; ii.
270; charity, i. 204, 219, 226, 292,
346, 457 «., 458; ii. 113, 168, 251,
280, 285, 370, 378, 393, 402, 416;
chemistry, i. 307, 420, 439; children,
examined, ii. 118 ; — , indulged, i. 159;
— putting pennies in their hands, ii.
251; childish amusements, i. 287; ii.
396; Church of England man, i. 210,
297, 428, 456 ; ii. 262, 369 ; church
attendance, i. 30, 56, 81 ; ii. 116, 319;
classical taste, ii. 77, 364; climbed a
gate, ii. 415; club life, i. 388; com-
plaints, i. 199, 263; ii. 140, 244, 361 ;
compliments, i. 286 ; confessions made
to him, i. 299, 310 ; CONVERSATION,
arguing for victory, i. 105 «., 376, 390,
Index.
Johnson, Samuel.
452 ; ii. 96, 222, 227, 231; — big
words, i. 344 ; — books, not from, ii.
235«.; — contradictions, i. 299, 321,
450; ii. 137, 367; — described by
Cumberland, ii. 76, and by Hogarth, i.
240 ; — didactic, ii. 165 ; — dogmatic,
ii. 92 ; initial sentences, ii. 142 ; —
— life of talk, i. 160, 308 ; ii. 352 ;
— loud voice, i. 347, 451 ; — novelty,
ii. 19; — presides, ii. 97; — real
opinion not given, i. 185 ; ii. 218, 356;
— runts, would talk of, ii. 365 n. ; —
silent till drawn out, i. 160, 289, 347 n.\
ii. 184, 255, 405 ; — story-telling, i.
265 ; — talked his best, ii. 96, 221 ;
— without effort best, i. 273, 324, 329,
469 ; — writings, like his, i. 348 n. ;
ii. 92, 391 , 401 ; — better than his writ
ings, ii. 220 ; — wrong side, ii. 34 n. ;
— youth, in, i. 155, 361; ii. 208;
country-life, i. 322; ii. 353; courage,
i. 224, 330; court mourning, ii. 191;
credulity, ii. 112; critic, i. 465, 469,
477; ii. 345,371; critical of behaviour,
ii. 275 ; curiosity, ii. 376 ; daily life, ii.
93, 115, 120 ; dancing, i. 212 ; ii. 52 ;
deafness,!. 319, 329; death, dread of,
i. 101 «., 116, 209, 224, 275-7, 33°>
439> 445, 448 ; ii. 69, 126-7, !32> i35>
156, 202,224, 337,394,399;— his last
days, i. 443 »., 444-8; ii. 7, 122-36,
146-60, 163, 169, 203-6, 336, 382-8,
398, 413; — his death agitated the
public, i. 356 ; debts, i. 413 ; ii. 323 ;
dedicated, never, i. 405 ; diary (see
infra> Journal) ; dictionary-maker, i.
260 ; diet,i. 94; discrimination, fond of,
ii. 236 n. ; distinction, disliked desire of,
i. 286 ; doctor, degrees of, i. 423 ; ii.
350; doing good every day, ii. 429;
dreams, i. 159 ; dress, i. 241, 307,
345 n., 386; ii. 75, 103, 139, 260, 389,
401 ; — , critical of, i. 336-8; ii. 275 ;
Dutch, studies, i. 68 ; Easton Mauduit,
ii. 217, 441 ; eating, i. 209, 217, 249,
328, 371 n. ; ii. 61, 64, 75, 105, 184,
210, 298, 336, 405; echoing his senti
ments, i. 320 ; election halloo, i. 292 ;
elephant, compared to an, i. 287 ; em
phasis, dislike of, i. 273 ; enemies,
wonders he has, i. 170; exaggeration,
hatred of, i. 208 ; excellence, i. 235,
296; exercise, i. 288, 320; ii. 94;
fame, anxiety about, ii. 42, 227 ; family,
i. 132, 139, 148, 150, 349 «., 359
fasting, i. 28, 38-9, 53, 59, 63, 71, 72,
75, 78> 83> 87, 97, 209, 450; feeling
for others, i. 205, 230, 252, 267, 276-7 ;
' fiddle-de-dee/ ii. 420 ; flattery, i. 273 ;
ii. 178-9, 189, 224, 319; fought his
way, ii. 244 ; fox-hunting, i. 287 ;
French, knowledge of, i. 216 »., 334;
friend, as a, i. 180, 226, 230, 236, 279,
421, 458 ; ii. 167, 411 ; friendship kept
in repair, ii. 69^.; fruit, love of, i.
217; funeral, i. 448; ii. 136, 379;
future, the, i. 252 ; Gelaleddin, i. 178 ;
gentleman, respect for a, i. 254 ; gesti
culations, i. 162, 367, 451 ; ii. 142, 222,
274, 297, 338 ; ghosts (see infra super
natural world) ; good qualities of others,
ii. 424 ».; grave, ii. 133, 378; gravity,
i. 225; great, meeting the, ii. 68 n. ;
Greek, i. 69, 77, 89*., 183; ii. 363;
HABITATIONS, Bolt-Court, ii. 119 ; -
— Edial, i. 368 ; — Gough Square, i.
383 J — Gray's Inn, i. 416 ; — Green
wich, i. 373 ; — Grosveaor Square, ii.
192 ».; — Inner Temple Lane, i. 416 ;
ii. 38, 108; — Johnson's Court, i. 420;
ii. 115; — household furniture and
economy, i. 66 «., 416, 418; ii. 115,
141, 259, 400 ; — inmates, i. 205, 292 ;
ii. 217, 411; Hamlet, alarmed by, i.
158 ; hare, let one escape, ii. 397 ;
HEALTH, as an infant, i. 131, 133 ; in
1756, i. 19; in 1766-7, i. 33«., 44,
234, 288, 423; in 1768, i. 48-9; in
1769, i. 50; in 1770, i. 52 ; in 1771, i.
56 ; in 1773, i. 64, 67; in 1776, ii. 449;
in 1777, i. 80; in 1778, i. 86; in 1779,
i. 88; in 1780, i. 93-4; in 1782, i.
103, 198, 224, 330; ii. 196; in 1783,
i. in, 113, 438, 440; ii. 5, 201, 454;
in 1784, i. 441 ; ii. 122, 457 (see supra
under death) ; — operated on himself,
ii. 134, 386, 407 ; — physic, dabbler
in, ii. 108, 323 ; heard pronounced
heerd, ii. 418; Hebrew, ii. 364;
hiding, said to be in, i. 375 ; history, i.
201, 451 ; Holof ernes, i. 270 ; Hotten
tot, not the respectable, i. 384; ii.
Index.
489
Johnson, Samuel.
348 n. ; household, see supra under
habitations ; humility, i. 296 ; humour,
vein of, i. 226, 269, 287, 345, 452,
468; ii. 98, 182, 185; — , good, ii.
179, 186, 188; — , severe, i. 242, 339,
357; — better after dinner, ii. 390;
hypocrisy, not suspicious of, ii. 225 ;
ignorance, ii. 223 ; impransm, i. 375 ;
improvisations, i. 194, 259, 281 ; in
credulity, i. 241-4 ; indolence, i. 5, 28,
71, 74, 86, 178, 409; ii. 115, 120;
infidels, aversion for, i. 211; ii. 370;
influenced by Thrale, i. 241, 338 ; in
heritance, i. 5 ; innovations, i. 349 ;
Italian, i. 77, 99 ; Italy, proposed visit
to, i. 263; ii. 71, 187, 447; jocular
speeches, ii. 271 ; journal, i. 14^., 64,
81 «., 127, 450 (see supra under
Annals) ; jumping, ii. 396 ; king's
evil, touched for, i. 133, 152, 360 ; ii.
338; knowledge, love of, ii. 19; —
general, i. 155, 181 ; ii. 118; — of
manufactures, ii. 325 ; — of surgery, ii.
387 ; — of digestion, ii. 405 ; — in
ready cash, ii. 365 ; late hours, i. 231 ;
ii. 19, 99, 326 ; Latin epigrams, ii. 123,
154; Latinity, i. 215, 416, 459; ii. 3;
laugh, ii. 71 ; lawyer, wish to be a, ii.
362 ; lemonade, ii. 69, 100 ; LETTERS,
"• 363 ; — to Allen, Rev. Mr., ii. 451 ;
— Compton, Rev. J., ii. 453 ; — Hay,
Dr., ii. 439 ; — Jones, Griffith, ii. 454 ;
— Lye, Rev. E., ii. 441 ; Macpherson,
J., ii. 446 ; — Percy, Dr., ii. 440-1 ;
— Porter, Lucy, ii. 450 ; — Reynolds,
Frances, ii. 448-50, 453, 455 ; — Rich
ardson, S., ii. 435-9 ; — Sastres, F., ii.
454 ; — Strahan, W., ii. 442 ; —
Taylor, Dr., ii. 447, 452 ; — Thrale,
H. M., ii. 451 ; — name not given, ii.
447; levee, i. 414; ii. 121,365; library,
i. 25; ii. 361, 380; living, declines a,
ii. 107, 361 ; logician, i. 452; madness,
dread of (see infra under melancholy) ;
mankind, thought well of, ii. 9 ; — ,
knowledge of, ii. 1 18 ; marriage, i. 249,
367 ; ii. 360 ; melancholy and mental
disorders, i. 48, 58, 78, 117, 148, 180,
199, 341, 409, 451, 472; ii. 97, 220,
257, 281, 322, 338; memory, i. 68, 86,
92, 225, 360; ii. 87, 166-7, 252> 364>
405; metaphysics, i. 201, 451; mind
ready for use, ii. 220; misses, love to
see a knot of little, i. 328 ; music, i.
215; ii. 103, 285, 308, 404; mys-
teriousness, i. 326 ; non-juror, not a, ii.
355 ; nugarum conlemptor, ii. 376 ;
nurse, i. 130, 132 ; obscenity and im
piety repressed, i. 453; ii. 224; 'ob
stinate rationality,' i. u6«. ; offence,
easily took, i. 246 ; offered a shilling,
ii. 269; old age, i. 84, 281; opiates,
i. 86, 88; ii. 128, 156, 369; orange
peel, use of, ii. 45 ; order, i. 25, 28, 33,
70; painting, i. 214; ii. 102, 286;
Papist, if he could would be a, i. 279 «.;
parlour, company for the, i. 293 ;
parodies (see under PARODIES) ; pas
sions, ii. 225, 227-8 ; patience, i. 267 ;
Pembroke College (see under OXFORD);
penance, ii. 426 ; penitents, lover of, ii.
114; pension, i. 62 «., 112, 322, 417;
ii. 115, 350, 355 ; — increase solicited,
i. 441 ; ii. 150, 369, 388, 459 ; per
son, i. 149, 224, 344, 450, 458 ; ii. 41,
98, 164-5, 209, 366> 402 J philosophy
studies, i. 17 ; physic (see supra under
health) ; piety (see infra under religion) ;
please, seeking to, i. 318, 454; poetry,
i. 460-4; ii. 422; politeness, i. 169,
451, 453 ; ii. 65, 180, 260, 276, 402 ;
Politian, proposes to edit, i. 365 ;
political writer, i. 474; politics, modern,
i. 203; portraits, i. 313, 342; ii. 9,
461 ; post-mortem examination, ii. 136,
388 ; posterity, best known to, ii.
395 n. ; poverty, i. 135, 180, 371, 377,
380, 413, 416; ii. 88, 370; praise,
exaggerated, i. 185, 214; praiser, par
simonious, ii. 202 ; prayers, projected
book, i. 4, 1 1 9 ; — (see under PRAYERS) ;
praying aloud (see infra, talking) ;
prejudices, ii. 226-7 ; pride, i. 451 ;
ii. 93, 223 ; profession, bred to no, ii.
13 n. ; professor,ii. 361 ; promptitude, i.
285 ; prose, i. 464-72 ; Punic war, i.
202; quarrels, i. 321, 339; question
enrages him, ii. 151 ; quoting him
against himself, ii. 2 36 ; ran a race, ii.
278, 396; Rasselas, like characters .in,
ii. 175, 220, 376; reading, learns to
read, i. 152, 156; — amount of, i. 144,
490
Index.
Johnson, Samuel Johnson, William.
181, 361, 363; ii. 344; — mode of,
i. 319; ii. 87, 142, 254; — rarely
read a book through, i. 332, 363 ; —
aloud, i. 347, 457; ii. 6, 254, 266,
393 ; religion, told of a future state, i.
J35, J63 > — rea-d Grotius, i. 157; and
Clarke, ii. 305; — piety, i. 209, 223, 277,
456 ; ii. 58, 225, 257, 297; — respect
for pious people, i. 212 ; — dying ex
hortations, ii. 126, 146-7, 150-2, 157,
169, 203, 206, 336, 387, 412 ; — (see
under CHRISTIANITY and PRAYERS);
resolutions, i. n, 16, 17, 25-6, 29-33,
36,40,42, 54-5, 59,61,64,66,71,80,
88, 91-2, 94-5, 97, 99, 117; rising, i.
33, 37, 41, 48, 67, 340; rolls down a
hill, ii. 391 ; romances, ii. 441 ; rough
ness, i. 189, 242 «., 346; ii. 257, 265,
280, 402; — repented of, i. 212, 244,
286; ii. 223, 263, 417; — gentle
doings,i. 296; ii. 27O«., 296; — pro
voked, i. 308 ; ii. 377 ; — charmed
into mildness, ii. 89, 201 ; — in early
life,ii. 259 ; — surprised at giving offence,
ii. 281 ; — none seen by Barclay, ii.
389 ; sacrament, i. 76, 84, 92 n., 98 ;
ii. 1 28 ; satire, dislike of general, i. 223,
327; scenery, i. 215, 322; ii. 210;
schemes of life, i. 25, 80 ; ' school,' his,
ii. 227, 230, 359; school-days, i. 136-
140, 157, 159, 360; ii/84, 163, 395,
414; scruples, i. 38, 40-1, 46, 93, 113,
223, 3°°, 45°; sea-life, ii. 376; ser
mons, i. 82, 476 ; * shown off,' i. 152 ;
ii. 197; sight, i. 19, 130, 337, 344,
457 J ". 209, 275-7, 292, 298, 343 ;
silver coffee-pot, i. 105 ; — cup, i. 135 ;
singularity, dislike of, i. 221, 313;
sleep, i. 44, 80, 231; ii. 123, 346;
Sober, i. 178; solitude, i. 219, 231,
440 ; ii. 121, 221; speaking in pub
lic, ii. 362 n., 392 ; Staffordshire
dialect, ii. 375 n., 418; stands by
his country, i. 371 ; story-telling, i.
226; studied behaviour, i. 326 n. ;
studies, ii. 86, 105 (see also under
PRAYERS) ; style, i. 466-71 ; subordina
tion, i. 349; supernatural world, i. 278,
4555 "• 3545 superstitions, i. 450 n.,
455 > swarming, ii. 278 ; swearing re
buked, ii. 17, 45 »., 278; swimming,
i. 224 ; ii. 4 ; talking to himself, i. 439 ;
ii. 216, 257, 273, 424; tavern-chair, ii.
70,91; tea, i. 231, 414; ii. 75, 105,
1 20, 322, 364 ; teacher, a great, i. 269 ;
tenderness, i. 284,435 ; ii. 90, 185, 196,
279; theatre, at the, i. 196; ii. 318;
thinking, taught the art of, ii. 230 ;
time, computer of, ii. 19, 115; Toryism,
i. 172, 204, 456; ii. 346; tragedy-
writer, i. 368, 387; 'tranquil uniform
state,' i. 310 ; travelling, love of, i. 263,
330; ii. 367, 376; 'tremendous com
panion,' i. 285 n., 454; tricks on Mrs.
Salusbury,i. 235 ; ii. 392 ; truthfulness,
i. 225, 297, 348, 458; ii. 218, 223,
428 ; Ursa Major, ii. 270; useful, love
of the, i. 282 ; Vanity, Sec,., tears in
reading it aloud, i. 180; voice, i. 347,
451 ; ii. 232 n., 277, 281 ; vows (see
under Vows) ; walk,ii. 139,165, 273-5 J
wants few, i. 329; watch, ii. 81, 117,
295 ; weather, influence of (see under
WEATHER) ; whistling, ii. 41, 53 ; wife
(see under JOHNSON, ELIZABETH) ; will,
i. 441 n., 448; ii. 122,124-6,132,149,
379, 3835 wine> use ofj i- 25> 28, 209,
217, 371 5 «. 45 1 ^7, 32i, 33^, 375 J
winter, liked, i. 329; women, outcast,
rescues one, ii. 168 ; — , talking to, ii.
212, 326; women, society of, ii. 252,
326 ; Works, list of, i. 304 n. ; — pro
jected, ii. 372 ; — moral, i. 272 ;
world, respect for it, i. 221, 313, 315;
— knowledge of it, i. 226, 253, 345 ;
— more satisfied with it, ii. 259 (see
also under WORLD) ; writing, dislike
of, i. 1 78 ; ii. 73 ; — for money, i. 181 ;
ii. 90, 107 ; — mode of, i. 348, 425,
446; ii. 215, 414; — time of, ii. 328,
346.
JOHNSON, Sarah (Dr. Johnson's mother),
birth, i. 150 n. ; character, i. 151, 154;
ii. 84?*.; death, i. 22, 205*., 285,415 ;
ii. 368; family, i. 154, 3595 general
rules, i. 161 ; Johnson's childhood, i.
*3l~9> J59» l635 — 'calls Sam/ i-
278.
JOHNSON, Thomas, i. 136.
JOHNSON, William (Dr. Johnson's grand
father^, i. 129.
JOHNSON, William, i.
Index.
Johnson, William Language.
491
JOHNSON, William, of Torrington, ii.
2797*., 404 «.
JOHNSON, Mrs. (Reynolds's niece), ii.
404.
JOHNSTON, Sir James, ii. 409 n.
JOHNSTON, W., i. 415.
JONES, Griffith, ii. 454.
JONES, Philip, ii. 199 n.
JONES, Dr. Trevor, ii. 423.
JONES, Sir William, projected visit to
America, i. 105 n. ; Harrow School, i.
161 n. ; Johnson praises him, i. 287 ;
— Western Islands, ii. 6 ; — Greek, ii.
363 ; Literary Club, ii. 26 n,, 137 n. ;
married, ii. 200 ; ' modesty and Greek,'
ii. 265.
JONSON, Ben, Alchemist, i. 306 n. ; auto
graph , i. 462 n. ; ' Bermudas,' i. 2 1 8 n. ;
Devil Tavern, i. 433 ; ' finding neither
ears nor mind,' ii. 246 n.
JORDEN, Rev. William, i. 164, 170, 362.
JORTIN, Rev. Dr. John, i. 366 n. ; ii. 12,
15^., 346, 431.
Journey to the Western Islands, i. 427,
475 ; ii. 6, 42, 46, 178, 210, 368.
JOVVETT, Rev. Benjamin, ii. 98 n.
JUNIUS, Francis, ii. 214.
Junius, i. 172, 203 »., 475; ii. 41.
JUSTIN MARTYR, ii. 430.
JUVENAL, i. 295 n., 372, 386, 443 n.,
460 ; ii. 166, 339, 387.
K.
KAMES, Lord (Henry Home), i. 255 n. ;
ii. 16, 372.
KEARNEY, Dr. John, ii. 30 n.
KEARSLEY, G., Anecdotes, ii. 161-70.
KEATE, — , i. 322 n.
KEITH, Admiral Viscount, ii. 451 n.
KELLY, Hugh, i. 181, 432 ; ii. 6, 352 n.
KEMBLE, John, i. 234 n. ; ii. 248 n.
KEMPIS, Thomas a, ii. 13, 153.
KENNEDY, Rev. Dr. John, ii. 392.
KENNICOTT, Rev. Benjamin, D.D., ii.
201.
KENRICK, William, ii. 50.
KENT, Duke of, ii. 64, 208.
KETT, Francis, ii. 388 n.
KILBY, Rev. Mr., ii. 430.
KILMOREY, Lord, i. 255.
KING, Dr. William, ii. 381.
KING, W. P., i. 3i7«.
KING'S EVIL. See under JOHNSON.
KIPPIS, Dr. Andrew, i. 482 //.; ii. 398.
KNAPTONS, the booksellers, ii. 357.
KNELLER, Sir Godfrey, ii. 5 n.
KNIGHT, Captain, i. 335.
KNIGHT, Charles (the author), i. 218 n.
KNIGHT, Sir Charles, ii. 171 n.
KNIGHT, Cornelia, ii. 171 n., 176.
KNIGHT, Lady, Anecdotes, ii. 171-6.
KNOLLES, Richard, i. 461.
KNOWLEDGE, general, i. 155, 361;
everyday, i. 281, 324; all valuable,
ii. 19 n. • irregular, ii. 302.
KNOX, John, i. 428.
KNOX, John, author of a Tour, &c., ii.
105 n.
KNOX, Rev. Dr. Vicesimus, ii. 313 n.
KOVALEVSKY, Professor, ii. 147 ».
L.
La Serva Padrona, ii. 410.
LACE, i. 253.
LADE, Sir John, i. 213, 281 ; ii. 152.
LAMB, Charles, Mrs. Barbauld, i. 157 n. ;
Milton's Defence, i. 485 «. ; Beauties,
ii. 2 n. ; punning, ii. 18 n. ; Rowe, ii.
142 n. ; Hoole, ii. 145 ; Henderson,
ii. 198 n. ; Fleet Street, ii. 302 ».
LAMBETH MARSH, i. 375.
LANG, Andrew, i. 89 n.
LANGDON, — , ii. 447.
LANGLEY, Rev. Mr., ii. 452.
LANGTON, Bennet, Boswell rebuked, i.
87 n. ; Burke in dispute, ii. 23 n. ;
children, i. 1 54 n. ; Collectanea, ii. 26 ;
described by Best, ii. 390; Johnson's
bequest, ii. 150 ; — death, i. 445 n. ;
ii. 127, 134, 152, 154-5, !57-9> 225»
385, 407 ; — draws his character, ii.
271; — roll, ii. 391; — portrait, i.
459 n. ; ii. 9 ; — values him, i. 198 ; —
visits him, i. 112 n. \ talk, ii. 235 n. ;
Literary Club, i. 230, 420; mentioned,
i. 32 n., 83, 104, 106; ii. 22, 30, 52,
129, 188, 192, 194, 439 n.
LANGTON, old Mr., ii. 107 »., 299 n.,
361.
LANGTON in Lincolnshire, i. 286 ».,
291 ; ii. 391.
LANGUAGE, knowledge of, ii. 311.
492
Index.
Lansdowne, third Marquis of. Longimis.
LANSDOWNE, third Marquis of, i. 229 n.
Lapse , i. 140.
LARMESSIN, i. 245 n.
LATIN, i. 303 n.
LATIN POETRY, modern, i. 365.
LA TROBE, ii. 158, 205.
LAUD, Archbishop, i. 120, 461.
LAUDER, William, i. 393-9 ; ii. 366.
LAUGHTER, ii. 287.
LAVATER, ii. 164.
L'AVOCAT, Abbe, ii. 2.
LAW, i. 223; ii. 20.
LAW, William, i. 363 n. ; ii. 305 n.
LAWRENCE, Dr. French, ii. 24, 30, 32.
LAWRENCE, Thomas, M.D., Johnson's
physician, i. 102, 198; ii. 112; — en
deared to, i. 104 ; — Ode, i. 460 ;
De Temperamentis, i. 103, 106 ; men
tioned, i. 278 ; ii. 9, 109, no n.
LE CLERC, Mrs., i. 44.
LEASK, W. Keith, ii. 466, 468.
LEE, Arthur, ii. 403.
LEE, Nathanael, ii. 62 n.
LEE, Alderman William, i. 204 n.
LEEDS, Duke of, i. 253 n.
LEEK, i. 130 n.
LEIBNITZ, i. 374, 480.
LELAND, Dr. Thomas, ii. 29.
LENNOX, Charlotte, i. 102 ; ii. 99.
LENNOX, Lady Sarah, ii. 31 n.
LEON i, a singer, ii. 69.
LESLIE, C. R., ii. 219, 269 n.
LETTERS, ii. 143, 153.
LETTSOM, J. C., M.D., Anecdotes, ii. 402.
LEVESON, Edward J., ii. 380 n., 461 n.
LEVESON, Miss, ii. 461 n.
LEVETT, John, ii. 395.
LEVETT, Robert, daily life, i. 420 ; Haw
kins's account of him, ii. 108-12, 115 ;
death, i. 102, 438 ; ii. 337 n. ; John
son's lines, i. 227; ii. 236 «., 250,
293> 373J mentioned, i. 98, 100, 205
«., 248, 304 n. ', ii. 259 «., 361 n.,
411 n.
LEWIS XIV, i. 189; ii. 354.
LEWIS, Dean, ii. 408.
Lexiphanes, i. 407.
LIBELS, i. 275 ; ii. 35-6.
LICHFIELD, the Riding, i. 130; George
Lane, i. 130; drinking, i. 139 n. ; inns,
i- 337J Cathedral, ii. 71; Cathedral
Library, i. 444 n. ; population, ii. 1 1 7 n. ;
Johnson's house, ii. 125, 132, 340, 379
n. ; — praise of it, ii. 410 ; — willow,
ii. 423; school, ii. 163, 396; pro
nunciation, ii. 375 n. ; Green's museum,
ii. 397; Toryism, ii. 410 n. ; palace,
ii. 417.
LICHFIELD, Earl of, ii. 362 n.
LIFE, a noiseless one, i. 151 ; made up
of little things, i. 208 ; vacuity, i. 251 ;
low, i. 253 ; art of living, i. 324 ; its
trappings, i. 345 ; miseries, ii. 256,
360. See also under WORLD.
LILLO, George, i. 386 n.
LINDSAY, Lady Charlotte, i. 105 n.
LINDSEY, — , i. 428 n.
LISBON, i. 244.
Literary, i. 229.
Literary Magazine, i. 398, 413.
LITERARY MAN, i. 238 n.
LITERATURE, i. 281, 295.
LITTLE BRITAIN, i. 134.
LIVERPOOL, first Earl of, ii. 283, 418.
Lives of the Poets., bargain and payment,
i. 78, 181 n., 433 ; ii. 357 ; progress,
i. 86, 88, 94, 96, 437; ii. 193; not
selected by Johnson, i. 272 «. ; his
pleasure in the work, i. 298 ; truths
in later Lives, i. 188 ; truth not sup
pressed, ii. 3 ; assistance of booksellers,
ii. 70; — of Steevens, ii. 371 ; criti
cized by Murphy, i. 477-87 ; Life of
Spenser, ii. 192 ; presented to John
son's doctors, ii. 399 ; part written at
Lichfield, ii. 414.
LOBO, Jerome, i. 365.
LOCKE, John, autographs, i. 462 n. ;
round-about sense, i. 467 n. ; admired
Blackmore, ii. 314 «. ; leading people
to talk, ii. 365 ; copyright, ii. 443 n.
LOCKER-LAMPSON, Mr., i. 99 n. ; 112 n.,
113 n., 115 n.
LOCKHART, John Gibson, i. 233 n.
LONDON, healthy, i. 289 ; house-rent,
ii. 94 n. ; immensity, ii. 97 ; Johnson's
love for it, i. 324; ii. 302 ; magnitude,
ii. 44; no public library, i. 425 «.; no
rendezvous for men of letters, ii. 104 «.
London, i. 372, 460; ii. 341, 371.
London Magazine, i. 377 n.
LONGINUS, i. 112.
Index.
493
Longitude Malone, Edmond.
LONGITUDE, i. 402.
LONGWORTH, Mrs., i. 138.
LOPEZ DE VEGA, i. 193.
Loplolly, i. 335.
LORD'S PRAYER, i. 103.
LORT, Rev. Dr., i. 305 n.
LOTTERIES, ii. 31.
LOUGHBOROUGH, Lord. See WEDDER-
BURNE.
Louvois, i. 270 n.
LOVE, i. 290 ; ii. 393.
LOWE, Mauritius, i. 106-7 \ "• H8-
LOWER RANKS, i. 318.
LOWTH, Robert, Bishop of London, i.
366 ; ii. 48.
LUCAN, i. 152, 416.
Luc AN, first Earl of, ii. 32, 137 «.
LUCAN, Lady, ii. 421 n.
LUCAS, Dr. Charles, ii. 428 n.
LUCAS, Henry, ii. 412.
LUCIAN, ii. 405.
Lunge, ii. 77.
Lungs, i. 306.
LUTTRELL, Colonel, i. 425.
LUXURY, ii. 97.
LYDIAT, Thomas, i. 461.
LYE, Rev. Edward, ii. 441.
LYELL, Sir Charles, i. 271 «.
LYSONS, Samuel, ii. 353 n.
LYTTELTON, George, first Lord, Life, i.
244, 257 ; ii. 3, 193, 208, 37J> 4J7» 42I5
Hottentot, i. 384 n., 451 n.\ ii. 348 n.;
Pope, ii. 332 ; Thomson, ii. 224 n.
LYTTELTON, second Lord, i. 455 n.
LYTTELTON, William Henry (Lord West-
cote), ii. 209 «.
LYTTON, first Lord, i. 437 n.
M.
MABLY, ii. 380.
MACARTNEY. Earl of, ii. 32.
MACAULAY, Catherine, ii. 4, n.
MACAULAY, Rev. Kenneth, i. 83.
MACAULAY, Lord, association of authors,
i. 437 n. ; autographs, i. 462 ».; Beau-
clerk, i. 273 n. ; Boswell, ii. 395 n- 5
Bunyan, i. 333 n.; Congreve, i. 186 «.;
copyright, ii. 445 n. ; Croker's Greek,
i. 89 n. ; English Academy, i. 436 n. ;
Fox's India Bill, ii. 458 n. ; French
literature, i. 216 n.\ Gibbon, ii. 66 n. ;
Hastings, Warren, ii. 22 n. ; historians,
ii. 345 n. ; JOHNSON and Addison, i.
470 «. ; — Diary, i. 450 «. ; — etymo
logies, ii. 349 n. ; — and history, i. 202 n. ;
— household, ii. 175 n., 217 n. ; —
idleness, i. 86 n. \ — Lives, i. 477 n.,
479 n. ; — Shakespeare, i. 474 n. ; ii.
358 n. ; — talk, ii. 142 n. • — touch
ing posts, ii. 273 ; — travelling, i.
263 n. ; — Vanity of Human Wishes,
i. 461 n. ; Literary Club, i. 229 n. ;
memory, i. 68 n. ; morbidities, i. 96 n. ;
More, Hannah, ii. 177 n.; North, Lord,
i. 104 n. ; Paradise Lost, ii. 318 n. \
Rogers, i. 287 n. ; uncle, ii. 88 n. ;
Warburton, i. 381 n.
MACBEAN, Alexander, i. 61, 98.
M°CHEANE, Robert, i. 117 n.
MACKINTOSH, Sir James, Johnson and
metaphysics, i. 201 n. ; — Life, ii.
220 «. ; Windham, ii. 382 n.
MACKLIN, Charles, ii. 2 n., 317.
MACKY, — , i. 72.
MACLEOD, Lady, i. 268 n., 409 n. ; ii.
76 «., 105 n.
MACLEOD, Laird of, i. 68 n. ; ii. 3 ».
MACPHERSON, James, i. 321, 431 ; ii. 39,
43, 74, 378 »•» 446-
McQuEEN, Rev. Donald, i. 456 n. ; ii.
325 »•
MADAN, Falconer, i. 164 n.
MADAN, Rev. Dr. Samuel, ii. 211, 267.
MADNESS, ii. 8.
MAFFEI VEGIO, ii. 325.
MAGLIABECHI, ii. 87, 141, 362, 366.
Mahogany, ii. 458.
MAHOMET THE GREAT, i. 462.
MALHERBE, i. 466 n.
MALLET, David, Bolingbroke's editor,
i. 211 «., 408; ii. 3r5 ; colloquial
ability, ii. 320 ; verbal criticism, i. 358.
MALMESBURY, first Earl of, ii. 71 n,
MALONE, Edmond, Bacon's Essays, i.
137 n. ; Boswell's debts, ii. 32-4 ; —
letters, ii. 21-38 ; Garrick, ii. 245 n. ;
Gibbon's death, ii. 67 n. ; Hawkes-
worth, ii. 298 n. ; Hawkins, i. 389 n. ;
ii. 80, 83 ; Johnson's gentleness, ii.
377 n. ; — Lives, i. 483 n. ; ii. 3 n.,
357 n. ; — solitude, ii. 344 n. ; Literary
Club, i. 229 n. ; ii. 25 «., 26 n. ;
494
Index.
Malone, Edmond Monckton, Hon. Miss.
lottery, ii. 31, 37; Piozzi's Anecdotes,
i. 143 ; Reynolds's executor, ii. 24 n. ;
Shakespeare, ii. 23-5 ; 33 n., 36, 358 ».;
Trinity College. Dublin, ii. 30 w.
MALTBY, W., ii. 72.
MAN, corrupt by nature, ii. 285.
MANDEVILLE, Bernard, i. 207, 268 ; ii.
20.
MANDEVILLE, Sir John, ii. 387.
MANSFIELD, first Earl of, Dr. Dodd, ii.
283 n. ; flattered Garrick, ii. 241 n. ;
little learning, ii. 143 ; satires on dead
kings, ii. 35 n.; slaves, ii. 440; Wilkes,
"• 373-
Manteau, i. 338.
MARCHETTI, ii. 387.
MARCHMONT, fourth Earl of, ii. 4.
MARCLEW, alias BELLISON, i. 130.
MARIA THERESA, ii. 35 n.
MARILLAC, ii. 306 n.
MARKHAM, Archbishop, i. 105 n.
MARKLAND, Jeremiah, i. 315.
MARL AY, Richard (Bishop of Clonfert),
ii. 26 »., 32, 137 n.
MARLBOROUGH, first Duke of, i. 174.
Marmor Norfolciense, i. 375 > ii- 34^-
MARRIAGES, late, i. 153, propagating
understanding, i. 213 ; for a mainten
ance, i. 316 ; objects in marrying, ii. 8.
MARSEILLES, Bishop of, i. 435.
MARTIAL, i. 188, 374 «. ; ii. 77 n.
MARTIN, M., i. 432.
MARTIN, a butcher, i. 475 n.
MARTINEAU, Harriet, Johnson's death,
i. 356 n. ; Wealth of Nations, ii. 424 ».
MASENIUS, i. 394.
MASON, Rev. William, i. 169; ii. 321 n.
MASSILLON, ii. 297 n.
MATHER, J., ii. 85.
MATTHEWS, Charles, ii. 72.
MATTHEWS, — , i. 292 n.
MATY, Mathew, ii. 181 n.
MATY, Paul Henry, i. 237 n. ; ii. 181 «.,
379-
MAUNDY THURSDAY, i. 70.
MAXWELL, Rev. Dr., i. 293 n. ; ii. 96 n.,
105 *., 397-
MAYNE, — , ii. 39.
MEAD, Dr., ii. 377.
MELANCHOLY, ii. 322 n. See under JOHN
SON.
MEMORY, ii. 287, 308, 425.
MENDOZA, i. 475.
MERLIN, — , i. 106.
Metaphysical, i. 252 «., 477 ; ii. 443 »,
METAPHYSICS, ii. 407.
METASTASIO, i. 261.
METCALFE, Philip, ii. 30, 388.
METHODIST, a, i. 30, 35.
MEYER, Jeremiah, ii. 330.
MEYNELL, 'Old,' ii. 226 n.
MEYNELL FAMILY, ii. 392 n.
M'GHIE, William, M.D., i. 389.
MICKLE, William Julius, ii. 377 n.
MIDDLETON, Rev. Conyers, D.D., ii. 8 n.,
66 n.
MILL, John Stuart, ii. 200 n.
MILLAR, Andrew, i. 71, 297 n., 383 n.,
408 n., 413, 430 ; ii. 5, 374, 436, 438.
MILLER, Sir John, ii. 47.
MILLER, J. Dewitt, i. 404 n.
MILLS, Rev. Mr., i. 304 ».
MILMAN, Dean, ii. 123 n., 153 n.
MILNER, Joseph, ii. 66 n.
MILTON, John, blank verse, ii. 332 ; copy
right, ii. 443 n. ; death, i. 1 50 «. ; ii.
379 ; Dryden's epigram, i. 196 ; equal
to his character, ii. 227 n, ; Euripides,
ii. 70; father, ii. 324 n. ; grand
daughter, i. 396 ; humble dignity, i.
J57 n-> Johnson's eulogium, i. 216,
395-7. 399 n-\ »• l65 J — Life, i.
483-7 ; ii. 195, 372 ; Latin poems, i.
459 ; Lander's forgery, i. 393 ; ii. 366 ;
pensieri stretti, i. 312 n. ; prayer, i
391; projected works, ii. 379? Pr°~
perty, ii. 379 ; seeing a beautiful lady,
i. 373 »• 5 ' surly republican,' i. 456,
484 ; wine, ii. 376 ; L 'Allegro and //
Penseroso, i. 198 n. ; ii. 195, 346, 354;
Areopagitica, i. 483 n. ; Comus, i. 147 ;
Paradise Lost, i. 202, 256, 282, 292,
439; ii. 7 n., 17, 102, 225 n., 234,
369 n., 395 ; Sonnets, ii. 97.
Mirror, the, ii. 351.
MITRE TAVERN, i. 124, 418; ii. 91 n.
MODENA, Duke of, i. 194.
MOLIERE, i. 334, 373 n.
MONASTERIES, i. 210, 303.
MONBODDO, Lord (James Burnet), i.
201 n., 344 »., 45 1 w.; ii. 375 »•
MONCKTON, Hon. Miss, ii. 194, 202.
Index.
495
Money Napier, Sir William.
MONEY, ii. 303.
MoNNEY, — , ii. 399.
MONTAGU, Elizabeth, Bunyan, i. 332 n. ;
delicacy, i. 326 ; dress, i. 338 ; Essay
on Shakespeare, i. 351 ; ii. 307 ; eulo-
gium by Lord Bath, ii. 271 ; flattered
Garrick, ii. 430 n ; Johnson praised by
her, i. 272; — praises her, i. 287;
— , quarrels with, ii. 193, 421 ; — and
H. More, ii. 184-5; parties, ii. 58,
181-2, 422 n. ; pensions Miss Williams,
ii. 172; wit, i. 226 n. ; mentioned, i.
180 n, ; ii. 61 n., 416, 448.
MONTAGU, Lady Wortley, i. 319; ii. 175.
MONTESQUIEU, i. 188 n.
Monthly Review, ii. 47.
MONTMORENCI, Duke of, ii. 306.
MOOR PARK, i. 195.
MOORE, Rev. Edward, D.D., ii. 198 «.
MOORE, Edward, i. 405 n.
MOORE, John, Bishop of Ely, i. I'jin.
MOORE, John, M.D., ii. 408.
MOORE, Norman, M.D., ii. 90 n.
MORE, Hannah, Academy Eloge, i. 435 n. ;
Bos Bleu, ii. 59 «., 201-2 ; Blagden,
ii. 24 «. ; Boswell, ii. 187, 206; ' Bozzi
subjects,' i. 143; conversation, ii. 178;
Fatal Falsehood, ii. 1 3 n. ; flattery, i.
273; ii. 179 »., 182, 43073.; gorgeous
in scarlet, ii. 141 n. ; grandmother, ii.
189 n.; human studies, ii. i88n. ;
Johnson, Anecdotes, ii. 177-207 ; —
asperities, i. 325^. ; — and Barnard,
ii. 263 n, ; — bred to no profession,
ii. 13^.; — death, i. 356 n. ; drawn
out, ii. 197 ; — and Fielding, ii. 190;
— her guest, ii. 186 ; — introduced to,
ii. 178; — Jesuits, ii. 200 ; — meta
physical distresses, i. 477 n. ; — mild
radiance, ii. 297 n ; — miserable sin
ner, ii. 157 ».; — Pascal, ii. 194 ; —
Pembroke College, ii. 197, 461 ; —
Raynal, i. 211 n.\ — Reynolds's Dia
logues, ii. 232*2. ; — her school, ii.
185 ; — Sir Eldred, ii. 184; — takes
the sacrament with, i. 116 n. ; — will,
ii. 125 n. ; letters, ii. 191 n. ; libelled,
ii. 207 n.; Macaulay, Lord, ii. 177;
Montagu, Mrs., ii. 181 ; ' Nine,' ii.
194 n.; nurse, ii. 177; physicians,
ii. 136 «.; Scotchmen, i. 427 «. ; men
tioned, i. 102 n., 322 n. ; ii. 133 »., 271.
MORE, Dr. Henry, ii. 338 n.
MORE, Sarah, ii. 182.
MCRFILL, William R., i. 117 n., 377 n. ;
ii. 368 n.
MORITZ, C. P., i. 275 «.
MORRIS, Miss, ii. 159.
MORTIMER, Rev. Dr. Charles, ii. 407.
MORTMAIN, statute of, ii. 125, 126 n.
MORTON, — , i. 293 n.
Muddy, i. 301.
MUDGE, John, i. 194 w.
MUDGE, Dr. John, ii. 419.
MUDGE, Thomas, ii. 117, 295.
MUDGE, Rev. Zachariah, ii. 117, n. i.
MULSO, Miss. See CHAFONE.
MURPHY, Arthur, debts and pension,
i. 406 n. ; dramatist, i. 237 n.\ Essex
Head Club, i. 440 n.; ii. 221 ». ;
Foote's Life, ii. 240 n. ; Johnson,
Boswell, i. 427 ; — buffoonery, i. 287 ;
Debates, i. 378; — Dodd and Kelly,
i. 180; — epitaph on Mrs. Salusbury,
i. 237; — Essay on, i. 353~488; "•
37; — Garrick, ii. 50; — greatest
pleasure, ii. 45; — introduced to, i.
306, 407; — Know yourself, i. 410;
— pension, i. 418 ; — Rambler, i.
305-6; — style, ii. 351 n. ; — swear
ing, ii. 17 n. ; — Thrale, i. 232, 422 ;
— , visits, i. 439 ; portrait, i. 342 n. ;
Three Weeks after Marriage, ii. 449 ;
Zenobia, i. 332; mentioned, ii. 44.
MURRAY, Earl of, ii. 468.
MURRAY, Dr. James A. H., ii-95 «.
MUSGRAVE, Sir Richard, i. 342.
Music, ii. 301, 404.
MUSSET, Alfred de, ii. 191 n.
Mutual, ii. 2197*.
MYDDELTON, Colonel, i. 308 »., 435 n. ;
». 397-
MYDDELTON, Sir Hugh, i. 435.
Myrtle, Verses on a Sprig of, i. 167.
MYSTERIOUSNESS, i. 326 ; ii. i.
N.
NAILS, growth of, i. 47.
NAIRNE, Edward, ii. 69.
NAPIER, Sir Charles, ii. 31 n.
NAPIER, Hon. George, ii. 31 «.
NAPIER, Sir William, ii. 31 «.
496
Index.
Napkins Oxford.
NAPKINS, i. 302 «.
NATURE, ii. 431.
NEATE, Harris, i. 300 n.
NEEDLEWORK, i. 328.
NEGROES, i. 292.
NELSON, Lord, i. 462 n.
NELSON, Robert, i. 221 n. ; ii. 305.
NEW RIVER, i. 435.
NEWBERY, John, i. 156, 414.
NEWCASTLE, second Duke of, ii. 68 n.
NEWTON, Sir Isaac, converted to Chris
tianity, ii. 306; Johnson and Bosco-
vitch, i. 416; music, ii. 103 n.\ un
married, ii. 360; Williams's scheme,
i. 402.
NEWTON, John, Bishop of Bristol, ii.
15 n.
NICE PEOPLE, i. 328.
Niche, i. 336.
NICHOL, Professor John, ii. 348 n.
NICHOLS, John, Bowyers Life, i. 444 ;
Islington, ii. 148 n. ; Johnson's Lives of
the Poets, i. 178 ; ii. 70 «., 372 n. ;
— death, i. 297 n., 445-7; ii. I57»
159; Anecdotes, ii. 409-13; joyous, ii.
36 ; Thirlby, ii. 430 ; mentioned, i.
370 n., 380, 398; ii. 123, 221 n.,
380 n.
NICHOLSON, ii. 31.
NICHOLSON, the bookseller, i. 133.
NICOL, George, ii. 148.
NICOLAIDA, i. 103.
NOLLEKENS, Joseph, i. 85 n. ; ii. 375.
NOLLEKENS, Mrs., i. 85.
NON-JURORS, ii. 355.
NORGATE, — , i. 191 n.
NORTH, Lord, ministry dissolved, i. 104;
* influence,' ii. 55 n. ; Walpole and
Shippen, ii. 305 ; attacked, ii. 310.
NORTH, Roger, i. 134^.; ii. 125 n.
NORTHCOTE, James, i. 3i3». ; ii. 49 «.,
72, 179 n., 248 »., 288 «., 454 n.
NORTHUMBERLAND, first Duke of, ii. 67,
208 n.
NORTHUMBERLAND, Countess of, ii.
29 n.
NORTON, Professor Charles Eliot, ii.
165 n.
NOVELS, i. 290.
NUGENT, Dr., i. 210, 230, 420.
NUMBERS, round, ii. 2.
O.
OATS, ii. 334 n.
Observer, ii. 78.
CEdipus, ii. 62.
OGDEN, Dr. Samuel, ii. 297 n.
OGLETHORPE, General, i. 402 n; ii. 51,
374 »•
OLD AGE, i. 84, 231, 281, 317, 329 n.
Old Maid, The, ii. 351.
OLIPHANT, J. L. K., ii. 466.
OLIVER, Dame, i. 157 «.
OMAI, ii. 292.
ONSLOW, Arthur, ii. 251 n., 381.
OPENNESS, i. 326.
Oracle, The, ii. 36, 144 n.
Oratorio, i. 196.
ORD, Mrs., ii. 191.
ORRERY, fifth Earl of, ii. 3 n.
OSBORNE, Thomas, i. 304, 380, 418; ii.
74* 347-
OSSIAN. See MACPHERSON, JAMES.
OSSORY, Earl of, ii. 241 n.
OSSORY, Lord, ii. 23, 26, 32.
OSTERVALD, ii. 1 1 8.
OTWAY, Thomas, i. 385 »., 435.
OTWAY, Mrs., i. 124.
OUGHTON, Sir Adolphus, ii. 356 n.
OVERSTONE, Lord, i. 230 n.
OWEN, Colonel, i. 171 n.
OXFORD, first Earl of, i. 436.
OXFORD, second Earl of, i. 380.
OXFORD, Clarendon Press, i. 382 «.;
common rooms, ii. 199 n.; disloyalty,
i. 171 ; dinner-hour, ii. 93 n. ; Fellows,
"• 3T3J Johnson's love for it, i. 168;
morning chapel, i. 49 n. ; riding-house,
ii. 53 ; sconces, i. 164 n. ; servitors, ii.
88; Jesus College, ii. 197 «., 199,400;
PEMBROKE COLLEGE, Dr. Adams's
portrait, ii. 461 n. ; buttery-books, ii.
313 n. ; common room, ii. 199 n. ;
Johnson's autographs, i. 3 ; ii. 460 ;
— desk, i. 367 n. ; — intended be
quest, ii. 1 26 n. ; — Hannah More,
ii. 197; — portrait, ii. 164 n., 199 n.,
461 ; — undergraduate days, i. 5,
164, 362; ii. 85-7, 197, 312, 340;
nest of singing birds, ii. 198 n. ;
tutor, ii. 418 n. ; St. John's College,
i. 428 ».; University College, ii. 321,
406.
Index.
497
Paget, Richard Philips, Ambrose.
P.
PAGET, Richard, ii. 390.
PAILYE, Canon, ii. 117 n., 296 n.
PAINE, Thomas, ii. 33 n.
PAINTERS, Company of, ii. 460.
PAINTING, allegorical, ii. 15.
PALFREY, — , i. 103, 106.
PALMER, John, ii. 250, 279 n.
PALMER, Mary (Reynolds's sister), ii.
219 »., 250.
PALMER, Mary (Lady Thomond), ii. 30,
2327*., 457 n-
PALMER, Theophila (Mrs. Gwatkin), ii.
219. 457 »•
PALMERSTON, Viscount, ii. 23, 137 n.,
241 n.
PALMIRA, i. 212.
PAOLI, General Pascal, Blue Stocking
meeting, ii. 201 n. ; Boswell's vow,
ii. 21 n. ; — his guest, ii. 459 ; grave, ii.
387 n. ; Johnson, visits, i. 61 ; — intro
duced to, ii. 1 6 ; — at Mrs. Montagu's,
ii. 421.
PARADISE, John, i. 80, 105 ; ii. 158,
22J.
PARENTS, i. 162.
PARK, — , ii. 3i3».
PARKER, Rev. Mr., ii. 413.
Parlour ; i. 293.
PARNELL, Thomas, The Hermit, ii. 255 ;
Johnson's epitaph, ii. 293; Hymn to
Contentment, ii. 428.
PARODIES, i. 190-3.
PARR, Rev. Dr. Samuel, Cumberland
and Priestley, ii. 72; Harrow School,
i. 161 n. ; Johnson's Life projected,
i. 296 n. ; — epitaph, ii. 373 n., 378 n. ;
Windham, ii. 382 n.
PARR, Thomas, ii. 336.
Particular, i. 35.
PARTY VIOLENCE, ii. 397.
PASCAL, Blaise, general knowledge, i.
I55«-; geometrician from infancy, i.
481; infinity, i. 200; Life, i. 48;
Penstes given to Boswell, i. 87 ; —
read by Hannah More, ii. 194.
Patriot, i. 426 ; ii. 46.
PATTISON, Rev. Mark, Johnson and
Warburton, i. 381 n. ; ii. 15 n. ; — and
Milton, i. 394 w., 399 n-
VOL. II. K
PAUL, Lewis, ii. 326 n.
PAYNE, John, i. 388, 394; ii. 278 n.,
396-
PEARCE, Dr. Zachary, i. 370.
PEARSON, Colonel G. F., i. 248 n.
PEARSON, Rev. J. B., i. 248 n., 298.
PEEL, Sir Robert, Bart., ii. 207.
PELHAM, Right Hon. Henry, i. 172 n.
PENANCE, i. 209.
PENNANT, Thomas, i. 430, 455.
Penny Cyclopaedia, i. 333 n.
Pension, i. 418 n.
PEPPER, General, i. 172 n.
PEPYS, Sir Lucas, M.D.,i. 224 »., 244 n.,
245-
PEPYS, Samuel, i. 133 n.
PEPYS, Sir William Weller, i. I74«.,
244; ii. 125 »., 191, 193, 201 «., 205,
416.
PERCY, Thomas, D.D., Dean of Carlisle,
afterwards Bishop of Dromore ; Bos-
well's tablets, i. 175**. ; Chaplain to
George III, i. 311 ; ii. 67 ; Goldsmith's
biographer, ii. 49 ; — face, ii. 269 ». ;
Grainger, ii. 266 n. ; Hawkins, ii. 80 ;
Johnson, Anecdotes of, ii. 208-18; —
Cambridge men, i. 169 «.; — dedica
tion, ii. 29 n. ; — eating, ii. 105 n. ;
— Idler, ii. 65 ; — letters to him, ii.
440-1 ; — parodies, ii. 67, 314; — ,
quarrels with, ii. 66; — romances, ii.
441 n. ; — Scotch, i. 430 n. ; — short
sighted, ii. 209 n. ; — Stourbridge
School, ii. 84 n. ; — visits him, ii. 64,
217; Literary Club, i. 230; Ossian,
i. 431 «.; Reliques, i. 192 ; ' a sprightly
modern,' ii. 179; mentioned, i. 106,
114 n., 229 n. ; ii. 35» 63» i37»- 343 «•>
406.
PERCY, Mrs., ii. 64, 118, 208 «., 217, 442.
PERCY, Miss, ii. 65 n., 406.
PERELLE, ii. 103.
PERGOLESI, ii. 41 ow.
PERKINS, John, i. 349 n. ; ii. 389.
PERSIUS, ii. 346.
PETER THE GREAT, ii. 338.
PETERBOROUGH, Bishop of, ii. 32.
PETRARCH, i. 365.
PEYTON, — , i. 61.
PHILIPPS, Lady, ii. 172.
PHILIPS, Ambrose, ii. 161, 359 n.
k
498
Index.
Philology Prayers.
Philology, ii. 349 n.
PHYSICIANS, * no estate raised by physic/
i. 223 ; dress, i. 389 n. ; playthings of
fortune, i. 390 n.; liberality, ii. 1367*.
Pilgrim's Progress. See BUNYAN, JOHN.
PINCKNEY, Eliza, ii. 76 n.
PIOZZI, Gabriele, ii. 140 n., 170.
PIOZZI, Mrs. See THRALE.
PITCAIRN, Dr., ii. 399 n.
PITT, William. See CHATHAM, EARL OF.
PITT, William, the younger, ii. 193 ».,
458 n.
PLATO, i. 112, 460.
PLAUTUS, ii. 309,
PLEASURE, i. 288, 324.
PLINY, i. 356, 454.
Plum, i. 2i7#.
PLUTARCH, ii. 339, 372 n., 374.
PLYMOUTH, i. 335 ; ii. 419.
POCOCK, Lewis, ii. 446 n.
POCOCKE, Edward, i. 62.
Poetical Scale, i. 398.
POETRY, pathetic, i. 283 ; devotional,
i. 284.
Poke, i. 250^.
POLAND, i. 235 ; ii. 367, 448 «.
POLITENESS, ii. 276.
POLITIAN, i. 365.
Polluted, ii. 149.
POLWHELE, R., ii. 117 n.t 296 n.
POLYBIUS, i. 419.
POPE, Alexander, autographs, i. 462 ». ;
blank verse, ii. 332 ; cant of an author,
i. 161 n. ; Donne's Satires, ii. 404 ;
drowsiness, ii. 4 ; Dunciad, ii. 254,
378 n. ; eating, ii. 336 n. ; Epistle to
Jervas, i. 434 n. ; ii. 254 ; Epistles,
i. 433 n. ; ii. 306 n., 341 ; Epitaphs,
i. 151, 258, 413; ii. 280 n., 373;
Essay on Criticism, i. 476; ii. 359;
Essay on Man, i. 374, 435 n., 452,
480 ; ii. 254, 341, 353, 367 ; Hayley,
ii. 420 n. ; Homer, i. 178, 470;
Johnson's Life, i. 480 ; ii. 193 ; —
London, i. 373; ii. 342; — Messiah,
i. 37°, 459 ; Kneller, ii. 5 n. ; mending
verses, ii. 73 n. ; modern Latin writers,
i. 365 n. ; Moral Essays, i. 445 n. ; ii.
369 n. ; music, ii. 103 n. ; narrow, i.
184; Oglethorpe, ii. 51; players, ii.
241 n. \ Prologue to Cato} i. 385 j
Pulteney, ii. 271 n. ; puns, ii. 18 n. •
rank, men of, ii. 245 ; Satires, i. 467 ;
«• 341, 354, 367; Savage's pension,
!• 372» 37^ n" '•> Shakespeare, i. 185,
358 n. ; Smart's translation, ii. 364 ;
style, i. 466; ii. 352; Thoughts on
Various Subjects, i. 435 n. ; Tickell's
Homer, i. 482 ; Universal Prayer, ii.
254 ; writing, mode of, i. 425.
PORRIDGE ISLAND, i. 218.
PORSON, Richard, minute writing, i.
191 n. ; Johnson and Lauder, i. 399 ».;
Hawkins, ii. 81-3, 117 n., 131 n. ;
Hayley, ii. 420 n.
PORTER, Henry, ii. 426 n.
PORTER, Captain Jarvis, ii. 173.
PORTER, Lucy (Mrs. Hunter), ii. 426 n.
PORTER, Lucy (Johnson's step-daughter),
reads Hammond, i. 107 n. ; prayers,
i. 108 ; mother, i. 248 ; Johnson,
veneration for him, i. 298 ; — letter,
ii. 450 ; mentioned, i. 44, 104, 106,
153 «•, 364 »•, 4OI> 432 »., 439 J »•
121, 391, 413, 417 n., 447.
PORTER, Joseph, i. 248 «.
PORTER, — , i. 369 n.
PORTERS, i. 380 n.
PORTEUS, Bishop Beilby, ii. 196 «., 197,
199 n.
PORTLAND, Duchess of, i. 338 n.
POSTERITY, i. 393.
POTT, Percival, ii. 143 n.
POVERTY, i. 251, 317.
POWNALL, Colonel, ii. 204.
PRAYERS, bed-time, i. 46 ; birthday,
i. 7, 20, 22, 25, 31, 32, 42, 47, 49, 56,
68, 73, 81, 91, 94, 100, 119; change
of outward things, i. 23 ; dead, for the,
i. 8«., 14, 15, 18, 23, 24, 25, 29, 34,
41, 54, 61, 65, 80, 85, 89, 98, 99, 102,
400 ; departure or at home, i. 108 ;
Easter, i. 15, 20, 21, 24, 26, 31, 33, 39,
53, 56, 60, 65, 73, 75, 79, 84, 91, 97,
115; ejaculation, i. 1 2 3 ; entering Novum
Museum,\. 37 ; eye restored to its use,
i. 19 ; illness, i. 50, 113 ; introductory,
i. 19; labour, i. 76; mother's death,
i. 22 ; New Year's Day, i. 8-9, 13, 18,
20, 36, 43, 49, 51, 58> 62> 69> 74, 77,
87> 93, 95J perplexing thoughts, i.
117; politics, engaging in, i. 36;
Index.
499
Prayers Reynolds, Sir Joshua.
Rambler, i. 9; repentance, i. 122-3;
Sacrament, i. 27, 108, 117, 121-2;
scruples, i. 46 ; Streatham, on leaving,
i. 108; study, before any new, i. 12 ;
— of law, i. 35 ; — of philosophy, i.
17 ; — of religion, i. 12 2 ; — of tongues,
i. 47 ; Taylor, for Dr., i. 118 ; temper
ance, i. 45 ; thanksgiving for health, i.
93, TI55 time misspent, i. 13; wife's
death, i. 10-12, 16, 19, 21, 27;
Williams, for Miss, i. 1 14.
Prayers and Meditations, i. 1-124.
Preceptor, ii. 343.
PRESCOTT, William K., i. 31 ».; ii.
380 n.
PRESTO, i. 189.
PRETENDER, Young, ii. 177.
PRICE, Dr. Richard, i. 429 n.
PRIESTLEY, Rev. Joseph, D.D., diary,
i. 65 n. ; influenced by Hartley, ii. 304 ;
Parr's friend, ii. 72; philosophical
necessity, i. 463 n.
PRINCESS ROYAL, i. 6 n.
PRINGLE, Sir John, ii. 162 «.
PRIOR, Matthew, Alma, i. 207; An
English Padlock, i. 220; Johnson's
Life, i. 178 n., 479 ; ii. 371 ; Solomon,
ii. 361, 376.
PRITCHARD, Mrs., ii. 248 n.
PRIZE-FIGHTING, i. 149, 475 ».
PROFESSION, Choice of a, i. 314.
Prologue at the Opening of Drury Lane
Theatre, i. 385, 396 ; ii. 314.
PSALMANAZAR, George, i. 56, 266; ii.
12.
Public dinners, ii. 183 n.
PUFFENDORF, 1. 419.
Punch, i. 103.
PUNIC WAR, i. 202, 452.
PUNS, ii. 18.
Purchase, i. 454.
PURGATORY, i. 401.
Q-
QUAKERS, i. 135 «., 222, 242.
QUARRELS, i. 246.
QUEEN SQUARE, ii. 358.
QUIN, James, i. 382 n.\ ii. 69 «.,
244 n.
QUINCY, Dr., ii. 90 n.
QUOTATIONS, unfair, ii. 236.
Kk
R.
RABELAIS, i. 345 n.
RADCLIFFE, John, M.D., i. 223 «. ; ii.
377-
RALEIGH, Sir Walter, i. 190 «.
Rambler, i. 9, 178, 181 n., 305, 348,
391-3, 399, 465, 469; "• 78, H7> 214,
350, 4M-
RAMSAY, Allan, i. 189 «., 250 «.; ii. 188,
192.
RAMSAY, Colonel James, ii. 99 «.
RAMSAY, John, i. 14 «.
RANDOLPH, Rev. Dr., ii. 66 n.
RAPHAEL, ii. 390.
RAPIN, Paul, ii. 357.
Rasselas, i. 285, 415, 471 ; ii. 171 n.,
175, 368.
RAYMOND, Samuel, ii. 39 ».
RAYNAL, Abbe, i. 211; ii. 12, 265.
RAYNEVAL, — , i. 109 «.
READING, i. 137, 181 ; ii. 2, 9, 142.
REED, Isaac, i. 387 n. ; ii. 24 n., 328 ».
REED, Joseph, ii. 318 n ., 411 n.
REID^ Dame, ii. 84 n.
REID, Talbot Baines, ii. 95 n.
RELIGION. See under CHRISTIANITY
and JOHNSON.
Resistance no Rebellion, ii. 53.
RESOLUTIONS, i. 31, 55, 89.
RETIREMENT, i. 315 ; ii. 8.
Revolutionist, ii. 356.
REYNOLDS FAMILY, i. 42 in.
REYNOLDS, Frances, Recollections, ii.
250-300; purity, i. 207; politician,
ii. 42; Hannah More, ii. 179, 181,
192; essays and verses, ii. 279, 449;
Johnson's letters, ii. 448-50, 453, 455 ;
— parody, ii. 314 ; Sir Joshua's letter,
ii. 455 ; — will, ii. 457 n. ; mentioned,
i. 103, 327 ; ii. 1 86, 188, 200.
REYNOLDS, Sir Joshua, apprenticed, i.
240 n. ; Barnard's verses, ii. 263 ; be
quests, ii. 24 n. ; Boswell dines with
him, ii. 24 ; — debts, ii. 34; — letter,
ii. 457, 460; Cumberland, ii. 72;
dinners, ii. 93 «., 460; easy language,
ii. 232 n. ; family, i. 421 n. ; funeral,
ii. 379 n- > game, ii. 28, 34 ; Gold
smith, i. 421 ; ii. 269 ; Hawkins, ii. 81 ;
Hope nursing Love, ii. 159 ». ; Ugo-
2,
5oo
Index.
Reynolds, Sir Joshua Roman Catholics.
lino, ii. 248 ; idol of every company,
ii. 1 8 1 ; Infant Hercules, ii. 311 ; in
vulnerable, i. 286 ; Italy, returns from,
i. 178; JOHNSON, acquaintance with,
ii. 294; — antics, ii. 275, 338 n.; —
caricature, ii. 420; — character, ii.
219-28 ; — character-drawing, ii. 270;
— checked immoral talk, ii. 45 n. ; —
conscience and shame, ii. 288 n. ; —
covered his ignorance, ii. 19 n. ; —
death, ii. 5, 152, 156, 203, 225;
— Dedication, ii. 29 ; — , Dialogues
on, ii. 232-249; — Dictionary, i.
182 «.; — downs, ii. 261 ; — drunk,
ii. 321 n. ; — executor, ii. 81, 380 n. ;
— , funeral, ii. 388; — hypocrisy
not suspected, ii. 9 n., 114 n. ; — in
fluence, ii. 229-231; — Italy, i. 441;
ii. 459 ; — Life, ii. 26 n. ; — passions,
i. 246 «. ; — pictures, i. 214; ii. 40,
102, 401 ; — portrait, i. 313 ; ii. 9,
164 n., 199 n., 2747*., 375, 461 n., 465 ;
— prejudices, i. 264 ». ; — promptitude,
i. 285 n. ; ii. 77; — : recitations, i.
347 w.; — roughness, i. 212 n. ; —
'school,' ii. 227, 230, 359 n. ; — silence,
ii. 178 ; — tea, ii. 75 ; — writings not
read, ii. 42; knighted, ii. 322; laced
coats, i. 253; Literary Club, i. 229-30,
420 ; ii. 23, 26, 30, 32 ; macaw, ii. 179 ;
Malone's Shakespeare, ii. 24 ; monu
ment, i. 230 n. ; Ossory, visits Lord,
ii. 23 n. ; portrait, i. 342 ». ; prosperity,
i. 286; Richmond house, ii. 457;
Royal Academy, ii. 330 n. ; Rubens,
i. 152, 153 n.; sisters, ii. 455; stories,
i. 225 ; Streatham portraits, i. 109 n.,
342 ; Thrale's manservant, ii. 449 ;
will, ii. 457 n. ; wine, i. 327 «. ; ii. 75 ;
mentioned, i. 335 n., 351 n. ; ii. 33,
49. 52» 53, J82, 187-8, 193 n., 194,
258, 266, 269, 270, 272, 292-3, 298 n.,
350 »., 362 «., 363.
RICHARD II, i. 149 «.
RICHARD OF DEVIZES, ii. 334 n.
RICHARDSON, J., ii. 377 n.
RICHARDSON, Samuel, character, ii. 251 ;
Clarissa, i. 260 n., 282, 297, 319 n.;
ii. 251, 439 ; compared with Fielding,
i. 282 ; ii. 190 ; flattery, i. 273 ; Johnson
and Hogarth, ii. 401 n. ; — letters to,
ii. 435-8 ; — loan to, i. 413 ; ii. 323 ; —
sought after him, ii. 180 n. ; — Rambler,
i. 393 n.; ii. 351 ; — makes him rear,
ii. 439 n. ; Sir Charles Grandison,
i. 169 n., 170 n., 221 n., 300 n. ; ii.
ii n., 305, 435-7; Universal History,
ii. 438.
RICHARDSON, William, i. 413.
RICHARDSON, — , an attorney, i. 179.
RICHELIEU, ii. 306-7.
RIDICULE, the test of truth, i. 452.
RISING IN LIFE, i. 252.
ROADS, i. 150, 249 n.
ROBERTSON, Rev. William, D.D., His
tories, i. 429; ii. 10, 349; Johnson,
Dictionary, ii. 352 ; — downs him,
i. 169 n.\ Presbyterian worship, i. 189,
428 n.', style, i. 345 n. ; ii. 48.
Robinson Crusoe. See DE FOE.
ROBINSON, George, ii. 33, 37.
ROBINSON, Rev. Hastings, ii. 417.
ROBINSON, Miss (Mrs. G. L. Scott), i. 180.
ROBINSON, Rev. R. G., ii. 417.
ROBINSON, Sir Thomas, ii. 95.
ROCHEFORT, Marshal, i. 270?*.
ROCHEFOUCAULD, adversity of our friends,
i. 207; conversation, i. 169 ».; death,
ii- 337> 4°° n- > gentleman writer, i.
334 ; ii. 304 ; gravity, i. 326 n. ; judging
our friends, ii. 200 «. ; self-accusation,
ii. 153 »•
ROCHESTER, i. in.
ROFFETTE, Abbe, i. 215.
ROGERS, Rev. John, D.D., i. 6, 124.
ROGERS, Samuel, Cumberland, ii. 72 ;
Ginevra, i. 1 79 n. ; Harris's Hermes, ii.
71 n. ; Hayley, ii. 421 n.; in the highest
society, i. 287 «.; Literary Club, ii.
26 n.; Murphy, i. 406 n. ; Reynolds's
Infant Hercules, ii. 311.
ROLLAND, John, i. I4«.
ROLLIN, Charles, i. 162.
ROLT, Richard, i. 412 «.; ii. 34, 162.
ROMAN CATHOLICS, Catholic Relief Bill,
ii. 207 ; conversion to Protestantism, ii.
151 ; doctrine of purgatory, i. 401 ;
Jansenists and Jesuits, ii. 200 ; John
son's friends, i. 210; obstinate ration
ality, i. 116 n., 279 n, ; pomp of
ceremonies, ii. 1 76 ; St. Pancras church
yard, ii. 387.
Index.
501
Romantic virtue Scott, Sir Walter.
ROMANTIC VIRTUE, ii. 306.
ROMFORD, i. 305.
ROMILLY, Sir Samuel, Abbe Raynal,
i. 2ii n.; death of Adam Smith and
Johnson, i. 357 n. ; Windham, ii.
382 n.
ROSCOMMON, Earl of, i. 436.
ROSE, Dr., i. 188, 419, 430, 452 ; ii. 419.
ROSE, Mrs., ii. 419.
ROTHERAM, John, i. 41.
ROTHES, Lady, ii. 158.
ROUEN, i. 215.
ROUSSEAU, Jean Jacques, Johnson like
him in certain respects, i. 158, 220 ;
coupled with St. Austin, i. 256 ;
authors' talk and writings, ii. 310 n.
ROWE, Nicholas, i. 161 «., 252 »., 284;
ii. 142 «., 196 «., 197 «., 357 n.
ROY, i. 245 n.
ROYAL ACADEMY, i. 436 ; ii. 330 n.
ROYAL SOCIETY, ii. 398.
RUABON, i. 308.
RUBENS, i. 152, 153^.
RUDDIMAN, Thomas, i. 253 »., 394 n.
RUFFHEAD, Owen, i. 482.
RUFFLES, ii. 139.
RUSHOUT, Sir John, ii. 306 n.
RUSSELL, Lord John, ii. 328«.
RUSSELL, Lord William, i. 252 «.
RUSSIA, Empress, ii. 147, 311; transla
tions of English works, ii. 147, 237 n. ;
Garrick's fame, ii. 237 ; Vauxhall, ii.
237 n. ; war with Turkey, ii. 392.
RUTTY, i. 41 n., 81 n.
RYLAND, John, i. 388, 400 n. ; ii. 124,
126, 149, 151-2, 155-
RYMER, Thomas, i. 105, 186 n.
S.
SACHEVERELL, Rev. Dr. Henry, ii. 370.
Sack, i. 309.
Sackville's Poems, ii. 70.
SACRAMENT, ii. 310.
SAILORS, i. 335 ; ii. 376-
SAINT-FOND, Faujas, i. 249 n.
SAINT-SIMON, Duke of, i. 270^.
SAINTE-BEUVE, i. 334 «. ; ii. 229.
SALISBURY, i. 115 n. ; ii. 399.
SALLUST, i. 112 ; ii. 22«., 372 «.
SALTER, Rev. Dr. Samuel, i. 179, 388.
SALUSBURY, Rev. G. A., i. 259 n.
SALUSBURY, Lady, i. 339 n.
SALUSBURY, Mrs., i. 66, 206 n., 235 ; ii.
365 «-, 379> 392.
SALUSBURY, Sir Thomas, i. 340 n.
SANDERSON, Bishop, i. loow. ; ii. 128,
1 30 «.
SANDWICH, fourth Earl of, ii. 330.
SANDYS, second Lord, i. 217, 316 n.,
SANDYS, Samuel, ii. 306 n.
SANNAZARIUS, i. 366.
SARPI, Father Paul, ii. 345.
SASTRES, FRANCESCO, i. 77 «., 292, 447 ;
ii. 134, 149-52, 154-5, J58> S^S "-,
454, 459-
SATIRE, general, i. 327.
SAVAGE, Richard, human nature, i. 208 n. ;
intimacy with Johnson, i. 370-3, 376 ;
ii. 370, 424; Life, i. 381, 387, 447 ; ii.
89, 343 ; Wanderer, i. 391 ; anecdotes
of, ii. 161 ; late hours, ii. 326.
SCALIGER, Joseph, i. 410; ii. 377 ».
SCEPTICISM, i. 120; ii. 287.
SCHOOLMASTERS, i. 163; ii. 17.
SCHOOLS, public, i. 294.
SCIPIONI, Alberto, i. 311 n.
SCONCES, i. 164^.
SCOTLAND AND THE SCOTCH, breeched,
ii. 169; compared with Irish, i. 427 ;
emigrants, ii. 403 ; Established Church,
i. 428 n. ; fruit, ii. 170; 'God made
it,' i. 265 ; insurrections, ii. 54 n. ;
Johnson's prejudices, i. 264, 427-32;
ii. 41 n., 49, 92, 216, 226, 333, 352;
- visits it, i. 427, 475 ; learning, i.
321, 366 «., 419; ii. 5, 15, 48> 3°8,
375 ; map, ii. 49 ; shoes, ii. 77 ; trees,
i. 430 n.; ii. 51, 374, 468; whisky, ii.
44; writers, i. 188; ii. 10.
SCOTT, George Lewis, i. 180; ii. 183 n.
SCOTT, John (first Earl of Eldon), Fellow
of University College, i. 42 n. ; first
visit to London, i. 44 w. ; buttress of
the Church, ii. 20 ». ; Johnson's tea,
ii. 76 n. ; — at Oxford, ii. 406 n.
SCOTT, John, of Amwell, ii. 47.
SCOTT, Sir Walter, Bart., Antiquary, i.
430 n. ; attacks, i. 271 n. ; Boswell,
i. 166 n. ; Cumberland, ii. 72 ; desidiae
valedixi,\. 5 n. ; Forbes, Sir William, ii.
195 n. ; Friday Club, L 230 n. ; Hoole,
502
Index.
Scott, Sir Walter Sherlock, Martin.
ii. 145 ; Johnson's good breeding, i.
169 n. ; — known to posterity, ii.
395 n. ; Scotch learning, ii. 5 n. ; —
Vanity of Human Wishes, i. i8ow. ;
memory, ii. 88w.; More, Hannah, ii.
190 n. ; mutual friend, ii. 219 n. ;
nothing to blot, ii. 224 #.; Pope, ii.
4«. ; Siddons, Mrs., ii. 31 9 w. ; Vida,
i. 366 ».; watch, i. 124??.; ii. ii7«.
SCOTT, Dr. William (Lord Stowell),
Johnson's executor, ii. 81, 154, 380 n. ;
— as a lawyer and speaker, ii. 362 n. ;
Literary Club, ii. 24; Dr. Adams's
letter, ii. 460; mentioned, i. 44 «.,
107 n., 349 n. ; ii. 36, 388, 406.
SCOTT, William Bell, i. 6 n.
SCOTT, Mrs., ii. 183.
Scoundrel, ii. 4, 19.
SCRASE, — , a solicitor, ii. 121 n.
SCRIVENERS, ii. 324 n.
SCRUPLES. See under JOHNSON.
Scrupulosity ', i. 169.
SEA, ii. 45.
SECOND SIGHT, i. 455.
SELDEN, John, i. 137 n. ; ii. 48.
SELF-ACCUSATION, ii. 153.
SELF-PRAISE, ii. 153.
SENECA, i. 207.
Sensual, ii. 301 n.
SENTIMENT, i. 206.
SERGROVE, — , ii. 460.
SEVRES, i. 325.
SEWARD, Anna, i. 167 «., 322 «.; ii.
4I4,4I7» 420 «., 421 ».
SEWARD, Rev. Thomas, ii. 417.
SEWARD, William, F.R.S., i. 172 »., 339,
349 n. ; ii. 30, 160, 190 n., 249 n. ;
Anecdotes, ii. 301-311.
SHAFTESBURY, third Earl of, 'Every
one thinks himself well-bred,' i. 169 n. ;
gravity, i. 326 «. ; punning, ii. 18 ». ;
ridicule the test of truth, i. 452 n.
SHAKESPEARE, William, acted abroad,
i- 334 > alarm caused by his plays,
i. 158 ; compared with Congreve and
Corneille, i. 186-7 ; — with Addison,
ii. 137*. ; copyright, ii. 442 n. ; edi
tions, i. 381 ; ii. 106 n. ; — Cambridge,
ii. 358 n.\ — Capell's, ii. 315; —
Johnson's, i. 381, 415,422,451,473;
ii. 47»., 106, 115, 307, 320, 328, 357;
— Pope's, i. 185; — Theobald's, ii.
431 ; — Warburton's, i. 381 ; ii. 431 ;
Garrick, ii, 333 ; horned husbands, i.
222 n. ; house, ii. 340; imitators, ii.
142 n. ; Johnson's admiration of him,
i' 3I3> ii« J65 ; — copy of his plays,
i. 304 n.\ learning, i. 160; monument,
i. 448; ii. 137; players, ii. 241 n.\
Poetical Scale, i. 398 n. ; Steele's quota
tion, ii. 242 n. ; traditions, i. 433 ; All's
Well, &c., i. 251 ; Antony and Cleo
patra, ii. 20 n. ; As You Like It, ii.
417 ; Hamlet, i. 158, 396, 422, 473 ; ii.
19, 86 n., 198 n., 355 ; i Henry IV, i.
283 ; ii. 303 n. ; 2 Henry IV, ii. 132 «.,
285; Henry V, i. 216, 231 n. ; ii.
221 n., 226 n.-, Henry VIII, ii. 14,
226; Julius Caesar, ii. in «., 311 n. ;
King John, ii. 75 n. ; Loves Labour's
Lost, i. 265, 270; Macbeth, i. 186,
339> 4435 »• 122, 151, 180, 240,
242 n. ; Measure for Measure, i. 439 ;
Merchant of Venice, i. 482 ; Merry
Wives of Windsor, i. 320 n. ; ii. 226 «.,
428 ; Midsummer Nighfs Dream, i.
144, 301, 457 n. ; Othello, i. 283 ; ii.
130; Twelfth Night, ii. 275 ; Winter's
Tale, i. 301 n.
SHAME, ii. 288.
SHARP, J., ii. 240 n.
SHARP, Samuel, i. 243 n.
SHARPE, Richard, i. 243 n. ; ii. 197 n.
SHAW, Stebbing, ii. 422.
SHAW, Rev. William, i. 104, 106 ; ii.
45i.
SHEBBEARE, Dr. John, ii. 355 n.
SHELBURNE, second Earl of, hires
Streatham, i. 108.
SHENSTONE, William, quoted, i. 168 n.,
246; ii. 253, 333 n., 347; The Lea-
sowes, i. 323; ii. 3, 210 n. ; his
poetry, ii. 5 ; at Pembroke College,
ii. 198 ; Johnson's style, ii. 351.
Sherbet, i. 30.
SHERIDAN, Charles, i. 319 n.
SHERIDAN, Richard Brinsley, Dr. Sum-
ner's pupil, i. 161 n. ; Literary Club,
ii. 137 n. ; Garrick's guest, ii. 245 n.
SHERIDAN, Thomas, i. 418 n.; ii. i.
SHERLOCK, Bishop, ii. 429.
SHERLOCK, Martin, ii. 363.
Index.
5<>3
Sheward, — Stainesby, Rev. — .
SHEWARD, — , i. 80, 102.
SHIPLEY, Anna Maria, ii. 200.
SHIPLEY, Jonathan, Bishop of St. Asaph,
ii. 32 »., 188, 193, 196 »., 200, 317.
SH i PPEN, William, ii. 305.
SIAM, King of, i. 189.
SIBERIAN BARLEY, ii. 448 n.
SICK, telling lies to the, ii. 337.
SIDDONS, Mrs., ii. 14, 319 »., 385.
SIDNEY, Sir Philip, i. 394.
SIMPSON, Joseph, i. 35, 39, 229 n.
Sincerely, i. 346 ; ii. 448 n.
SINGULARITY, i. 221.
SKATING, i. 245.
SKELTON, Rev. Philip, ii. 53.
SKINNER, Stephen, ii. 214.
SKYE, i. 67, 259.
SLACK, the butcher, i. 449 n.
SLOANE, Sir Hans, i. 462 n.
Small, i. 38 ».
SMART, Christopher, i. 320, 413; ii.
364-5-
SMELT, Leonard, ii. 191.
SMITH, Adam, Barnard's verses, ii. 265 ;
credulity, i. 243 n. ; death, i. 357 n. ;
house- rents, ii. 94 n. ; hunger, ii.
75n'> Johnson, Glasgow, and Brent
ford, i. 32 2 ; — knowledge of books, i.
181 «.,ii. 214^.; — opinion of, 11.423;
— Savage, i. 372 n. ; — Shakespeare, ii.
307 ; Kames, Lord, ii. 16 n. ; Literary
Club, i. 457 «.; ii. 13? n-> 424 n->
Oxford, i. 165 n.', players, i. 457 «. ;
soldiers and sailors, i. 335 n. ; Wealth
of Nations, Fox could not read it, ii.
424 n. ; — in Russian, ii. 147 n. ; —
writing on trade, ii. 162 n.
SMITH, Edmund, i. 368 n.
SMITH, Sydney, i. 230 n.
SMITHFIELD, i. 149.
SMOLLETT, Tobias, M.D., age of George
II, ii. 7».; Bath, Lord, ii. 271 n. ;
chemistry, i. 307 n. ; convocation, ii.
369 n. ; De Foe, i. 332 n. ; Johnson's
Debates, ii. 342 ; — servant, it. 439 n. ;
Lichfield, ii. 410 «. ; Mansfield, ii.
143 n. ; pension, no,ii. 355 ». ; Richard
son, i. 283 n. ; style, ii. ion. ; Walpole,
ii. 309 n.
Snatch, i. 43.
SOCIETY, ii. 443.
SOCRATES, i. 329; ii. 98 n.
SOLANDER, Dr., i. 280; ii. 181.
SOLDIERS, i. 254 n.
Solemn, i. 7 n.
SOLITUDE, i. 219.
SOMERS, Lord, i. 467.
SOMERSET, « proud ' Duke of, i. 163 n.
SOMERVILE, William, ii. 333 n.
Sophistication, i. 307 n.
SOUTH, Rev. Robert, D.D., Averroes,
i. 19873. ; belly and the conscience, i.
249 n. ; Busby's pupil, ii. 304 ; chance
in wit, i. 175 n. ; chaplains, i. 364 n. ;
finding ears and words, ii. 246 n. ;
metaphysical love, i. 477 n. ; quoting
him, ii. 207; religion and morals, ii.
161 n. ; souls keep bodies from putre
faction, i. 185 n.
SOUTHERN, Thomas, i. 385 n. ; ii. 48 n.
SOUTHEY, Robert, dreams, i. 1 1 w. ;
' Botch' Hayes, i. 476 w. ; metaphysical
poets, i. 478 n. ; Bruce's Abyssinia, ii.
12 n. ; Cowper and Henderson, ii.
411 n. ; Hayley, ii. 421 n.
SOUTHWARK, i. 292.
SOUTHWELL, Edmund, ii. 114.
SOUTHWELL, Lord, ii. 1 14.
SOUTHWELL, — , i. 62.
Spavined, i. 286 n.
SPECTACLES, ii. 325.
Spectator, i. 465 ; ii. 445 n.
SPENCE, Rev. Joseph, i. 482 ; ii. 3, 348,
366.
SPENCER, first Earl, ii. 137 »., 193,
241 n.
SPENCER, second Earl, ii. 193 n.
SPENSER, Edmund, i. 190 n.; ii. 192,
372.
SPINA, Alexander, ii. 325 n.
SPIRITS. See under GHOSTS.
SPOTTISWOODE, Andrew, ii. 199 »., 461 ».
SPRAT, Bishop, ii. 363.
Spunging-hotise, ii. 323.
ST. CLEMENT DANES, i. 63 n., 65 ».,
n6». ; ii. 116.
ST. GILES, ii. 304.
ST. HELENS, Lord, i. 416.
ST. LAWRENCE, River, i. 322.
ST. PANCRAS CHURCH, ii. 387.
STAFFORDSHIRE, ii. 410 w.
STAINESBY, Rev. — , i. 124.
5°4
Index.
Stanfield, Clarkson Swinton, John.
STANFIELD, Clarkson, i. 99 n.
STANHOPE, first Earl, i. 172 n. ; ii. 410 «.
STANHOPE, Philip, ii. 16, 348.
STANHOPE, Mrs., ii. 348.
STAPHORSTIUS, i. 394.
STATIUS, i. 32.
STEELE, Sir Richard, Essays, i. 187;
hospitals, i. 204 n. ; Tatler, i. 465 ;
Tickell's Homer, i. 482 ; Addison's
loan, ii. 3 n. ; bailiffs, ii. 161 ; Better-
ton, ii. 242 n.
STEELE, — , i. 375.
STEEVENS, George, Anecdotes, ii. 312-
329 ; Baretti's trial, ii. 228 n. ; Boswell,
ii. 28, 33 ; Capell and Collins, ii. 316 ;
Essex Head Club, ii. 221 ; Hawkins,
ii. 129; house, ii. 313 n., 328 n. ;
Johnson's death, ii. 159; — Lives, ii.
371 ; — at Marylebone Gardens, 11.410 ;
— servant bribed, ii. 329 n. ; — watch,
ii. 296; — , visits, i. 104; Literary
Club, i. 229 «. ; ii. 26; Malone, ii.
24; Shakespeare, ii. 328 n.
STEPHENS, Henry, i. 445 n. ; ii. 123.
STEPHENSON, B. C., ii. 313 n.
STERNE, Lancelot, Tristram Shandy,
i. 129 n., 334 n. ; ii. 71 ; read by Miss
Burney, ii. 190 n. ; a blockhead, ii.
270 n.; grossness, ii. 320; no pension,
ii. 355 n. ; Sermons, ii. 429.
STEWART, Dugald, ii. 425.
STOCKDALE, Rev. Percival, Anecdotes,
ii. 33°-4-
STOCKDALE, — , a printer, i. 376, 378,
476.
Stock-jobber, i. 473 n.
STONEHOUSE, Sir James, M.D., ii. 179,
185.
Stops, i. 95 n.
STORAGE, Stephen, ii. 410 n.
STORRY, Rev. Mr., ii. 204.
STORY, value of a, i. 225, 348 ; ii. a.
STOURBRIDGE SCHOOL, i. 159 «., 361 ;
ii. 84 n.
STRADA, i. 366 ; ii. 359.
STRAHAN, Andrew, ii. 373 n.
STRAHAN, Rev. George, D.D., i. 4, 89 n.,
400,447-8; ii. 124, 126, 128, 132-3,
148, 155, 158-9, 385.
STRAHAN, Mrs., i. 205 n. ; ii. 126, 148,
159-
STRAHAN, William, i. 104, 106, i88w.,
265 »., 383 «., 412-3, 415 n,, 430;
ii. 22«., 90 «., 442-5.
STREATFIELD, Sophia, i. 339.
STREATHAM, Church, i. 239; ii. 319;
Common, i. 301 ; Johnson goes there
in 1766, i. 43, 234; — daily life, i.
now., 217 n.; — leaves it, i. 108,
438 ; library, i. 109, 313 n., 342, 347 ».,
4235 ii- 352; summer-house, i. 99,
291.
STRICKLAND, Mrs., ii. 290.
STRUNDT JAGER, i. 358 n.
STUART, Gilbert, ii. 425.
STUART, Lady Louisa, ii. 145.
Study, ii. 248 n.
STUDY, season propitious for, i. 67.
STYLE, new, i. 6n., 13, 129 n.
SUBORDINATION, i. 437 n. • ii. 243.
SUDENBERG, Professor, i. 280 «.
SUICIDE, ii. 10, 52.
SULLY, Duke of, i. 134 n., 273 n.
SUMNER, Dr. Robert, i. 161 ; ii. 4.
SUNDAY, i. 17, 301 ; ii. 413.
SURGICAL OPERATIONS, ii. 143.
SURTEES, W. E., ii. 408.
Swarm, ii. 278.
SWIFT, Jonathan, Academy, i. 436 ; Ar-
buthnot, i. 223 «.; Bentley, ii. 377 ». ;
Boulter, Archbishop, ii. 267 n. ; Cade-
nus and Venessa, i. 202 ; complainer,
ii. 259 n.; conversation, ii. 166 ; eating
fruit, i. 130^. ; frugality, ii. 238^. ;
good manners, ii. 276 ». ; Gower, ii.
361 ; hated the world, i. 327 ; ii. 465 ;
human depravity, i. 268 n. ; imitation,
ii. 142 n. ; Ireland, denied, ii. 48 ;
Johnson's dislike, i. 373, 479; ii. 211,
330 ; lesser morals, i. 454 ; miseries of
life, ii. 256 n. ; On Dr. Swiff s Death,
i. 277 ; ii. 386 ; originality, ii. 368 n. ;
Parson Dapper, i. 171 n. ; physicians,
i. 223 ; Pilgrim's Progress, i. 332 «. ;
public table, ii. 18372. ; spectacles, ii.
325 n., 343; To Stella, i. 202, 259;
style, i. 466 ; vive la bagatelle, ii. 50 n. •
Voyage to Laputa, ii. 262 n.
SWINBURNE, A. C., ii. 246 n.
SWINFEN, Dr. Samuel, i. 131-2, 409.
SWINHOE, Gilbert, i. 369 n.
SWINTON, John, i. 445.
Index.
Symonds, Horatio P Thrale, Hester Lynch.
SYMONDS, Horatio P., i. 82 n., 129 n.
SYMONS, Rev. Benjamin, D.D., i. 475 n.
SYMPATHY, i. 205, 268 ; ii. 285.
Symposiarch, ii. 97.
T.
TACITUS, i. 188 *., 356, 369, 430 n., 434,
485, 4s 7; »• 347-
TALBOT, Catharine, i. 179; ii. 351.
TALES, of oneself, i. 311.
TALK. See CONVERSATION.
TALLEYRAND, i. 273 «.
TARLETON, Richard, ii. 99.
TAVERNS, ii. 91 n. ; — chair, ii. 91.
TAVISTOCK, Marchioness of, i. 252.
TAVISTOCK, Marquis of, i. 252 «.
Taxation no Tyranny, i. 426 ; ii. 39, 42,
46~7> 53, 186 n.
TAYLOR, Bishop Jeremy, Act of love,
i. 76 n. ; Johnson read him much, ii.
13 ; lies in prayers, i. 120 ; sickness, ii.
128 n. ; Worthy Communicant, i. 54 n.
TAYLOR, Rev. John, D.D., dinner on
Easter Eve, i. 53 n. ; ii. 257 «. ; John
son's death-bed, ii. 151, 1 58 ; — funeral,
i. 449 ; ii. 1 36 ; — hopes to talk
seriously with him ; i. 101 ; — , know
ledge of the life of, i. 158, 164, 166,
363, 364 n. ; — , Letter to, i. 101 n. ;
— letters, ii. 447, 452 ; — resents his
advice, i. 96 n., 449 n. ; — silver coffee
pot, i. 105 ; — wife, i. 257 ; ii. 102 ;
sermons, i. 82, 476; sick, i. 118 n. ;
mentioned, i. 383 n., 438; ii. 392.
TAYLOR, John (Demosthenes'), i. 289.
TAYLOR, Michael Angelo, ii. 36.
TEA, i. 135, 159 n., 414; ii. 16, 76.
TEMPLE, Archbishop, ii. 457 n.
TEMPLE, second Earl, ii. 458 ».
TEMPLE, Sir William, i. 466.
TEMPLE, Rev. William Johnson, ii. 21 n.,
395 »•» 457-
TENNYSON, Alfred, Clarissa, ii. 191 n. ;
Milton, ii. 165 n.; Ode on the Death of
Wellington, i. 296 n. ; war, ii. 16 n.
TERENCE, i. 373 ; ii. 317.
THACKERAY, W. M., Imitation of Christ,
ii. 153 n. ; Addison's hymn, ii. 393 n.
THEOBALD, Lewis, i. 304 n., 358.
0 *, i. 76, 89, 98.
THIRLBY, Dr. Styan, ii. 430.
THOMAS, M., i. 434.
THOMOND, Marquis and Marchioness of,
ii. 232 «.
THOMSON, James, Agamemnon, i. 311 ».;
cant about Rome, i. 201 n. ; Castle of
Indolence, ii. 73 n., 268 n., 358 n. ;
nephew, ii. 2 n. ; Seasons, ii. 428 n.
THORPE, J., i. 304 n.
THOU, De (Thuanus), i. 201 n. ; ii. 380.
Thoughts concerning Falkland's Islands,
i. 173 ».
THRALE, Henry, Abingdon, stood for,
i. 293 n. ; brewery, i. 181, 214 ; ii. 40,
218 n. • carriage accident, i. 330 ;
character, i, no n. ; ii. 218; conver
sation, ii. 169, 374 ; death, i. 96, 99,
206 n., 277, 438 ; ii. 8, 101 n., 337 n. ;
dinners, ii. 40, 43-4, 49, 53, 352 ;
embarrassed, i. 235 ; irregularity of
his family, i. 37; JOHNSON'S challenge,
ii. 98 n. ; — chemistry, i. 307 ; —
epitaph on him, i. 237; ii. 379, 389 «.;
— executor, ii. 374 ; — friendship, i.
97, 99, 1 66, 232-4, 341, 422-3 ; ii.
1 20, 352 ; — guardian of his daughters,
i. 340 n. ; — horse, i. 288 n. ; — , in
fluence over, i. 241, 338, 453; —
Italian tour, ii. 188 «.; — reprimanded
him, i. 216 ; — Taxation no Tyranny,
ii. 42 ; — wig, ii. 104 n. ; Junius, i.
173; member for Southwark, i. 173 n.,
292 ; portraits of his friends, i. 342 ;
man-servant, ii. 449; scenery, i. 215;
silver plate, ii. 467 ; son's death, i. 75 ;
will, ii. 121 n. ; mentioned, i. 57, 149 ;
ii. 140, 192 n., 236.
THRALE, Henry, junior, i. 75 n., 189 n.,
206 n., 238 ; ii. 188 »., 446.
THRALE, Hester Lynch (Miss Salusbury,
afterwards Mrs. Piozzi), Anecdotes, i.
141-351 ; — publication, i. 143 ; —
composition, i. 298, 309 ; baptism, i.
259 n. ; Baretti flatters her, ii. 40 ;
Bath, i. in «., 340; ii. 140, 294;
Borough election, i. 293 n. \ Boswell
criticizes her, L 167 n., 175 «., 176 «.,
i8o»., 321 n., 341 n. ; — criticized by
her, i. 175, 351 ; ii. 44 ; Burney, Susan,
i. no n. ; Candide, ii. 190 n. ; com
mon-place book, i. 176; described by
Dr. Campbell, ii. 40; dress, i. 331;
5o6
Index.
Thrale, Hester Lynch Vanity of Human Wishes.
flattery, i. 344 n. ; ii. 202 «., 224 n.\
Garrick, ii. 249 n. ; Garrick, Mrs., ii.
194 n. ; Hogarth, i. 240 ; house in
Grosvenor Square, ii. 193 n. ; — in
Harley Street, i. 106 n. ; — in Argyle
Street, ii. 451 n. ; income, i. 340 n. ;
JOHNSON, advice about parties, ii. 14 n. ;
— biographers, i. 166 ; — death, i.
209; — Dictionary ', i. 182; — dis
puting with, i. 189 n. ; — estranged
from, ii. 337 ; — favourite couplet, ii.
422 ; — health, ii. 353 ; — ill-humour,
i. 242 n. ; — , imitated, i. 347 n. ; —
introduced to her, i. 232, 422; — late
hours, ii. 120; — letters, ii. 363 n. ;
— life soothed, i. 234 n., 422 n. ; —
' knows nothing of her,' ii. 140 ; —
' my mistress,' i. 149 ; — neglected,
i. 330 n. ; — praise of her, ii. 272 ; —
and Prior, ii. 371 n. ; — roughness, ii.
273 ; — takes leave of her, i. in ; —
verses, i. 194, 258-60, 460 ; — wagers,
ii. 46 ; — wearies her patience, i. 341 ;
— week, ii. 117 «.; lawsuit, i. 339;
learning, i. 152 n. ; marriage, second,
ii. 170, 353; money, care of, ii. 3*3;
Montagu's Essay, i. 351; Paris, jour
ney to, i. 74 ».; portrait, i. 342 «.;
praise, i. 185 n. ; profanity, ii. 18 n. ;
quotes Foster, ii. 41 ; sale catalogue, ii.
467 ; son's death, ii. 447-8 ; Streatham,
i. 108 n. ; table, ii. 43, 352; Thrale's
death, i. 96; ii. 101 n. ; verses, i. 197,
343; ii. 251 n., 353; Williams, Miss,
ii. 175; wit, ii. 353; Young criticized,
i. 258 ; mentioned, i. 104, 105 ; ii. 50.
THRALE, Hester Maria (Viscountess
Keith), i. 92 n., 103, 260, 291 ; ii.
294, 451.
THRALE, Ralph, i. 238.
THURLOW, Lord Chancellor, i. 441 ; ii.
I5°i 369, 388; Johnson's pension, i.
441 ; ii. 150, 369, 388, 456.
THYER, — , ii. 364.
TIBERIUS, i. 486.
TICKELL, Richard, ii. 26 n.
TICKELL, Thomas, i. 482.
TILLOTSON, Archbishop, i. 207, 466;
ii. 429.
TINDAL, Dr., ii. 357.
TOLCHER, Alderman, ii. 419.
TOM THUMB, i. 203.
TONSON, Jacob, the younger, i. 382 n. ;
ii. 320.
Tony, i. 281.
TOOKE, Home, i. 405 n. ; ii. 71 n., 339.
TORIES, i. 171.
TORRE, ii. 321, 377.
Touching, i. 267 n.
TOWER OF LONDON, ii. 52 n.
TOWERS, Dr. Joseph, i. 396, 478, 482 n.
TOWNMALLING, i. 47.
TOWNSHEND, Rt. Hon. Charles, i. 172 n.
TOWNSHEND, a printer, ii. 7 ».
TRADERS, retired, i. 293 n.
Transcendental, i. 294 n.
TRAPP, Dr. Joseph, i. 171.
TREVELYAN, Sir George, Bart., i. 436 n.
TREVELYAN, Lady, ii. 178.
TRIMMER, Mrs., i. 156 n., 157 n.
TRIMMER, — , i. 253 n.
TRINITARIAN CONTROVERSY, ii. 305 n.
Trocar, ii. 1 35 n.
TROTTER, T., an engraver, ii. 164.
Trundle, i. 312 n.
TRYSULL, i. 132.
TUCKER, Dean Josiah, D.D., i. 202 n. ;
ii. 186-7.
TUCKER, Miss, i. 300 n.
TULL, Jethro, ii. 228 n.
TURENNE, i. 270 n.
TURKEY, ii. 391.
TYERS, Jonathan, ii. 335 n.
TYERS, Thomas, i. 290, 347 n., 458;
"• 379> 380 n. ; Anecdotes, ii. 335-81.
U.
Universal History, i. 267, 445; ii. 123,
372.
UNWIN, T. Fisher, ii. 468.
UPPER OSSORY, Earl of, ii. 137 n.
URNS, ii. 428.
USHER, Archbishop, i. 461 ; ii. 48.
UTTOXETER, ii. 427.
V.
VACATION TASKS, i. 161.
VALENTIA, Lord, ii. 12 n.
VANDEWALL, Samuel, i. 300 n.
VANDYKE, i. 481.
Vanity of Human Wishes, i. 180, 386,
387«.,46o; ii. 313,422.
Index.
5°7
Vansittart, — Warburton, William.
VANSITTART, — , ii. 367, 381.
Vellication, i. 98 n.
VENICE, ii. 258.
VERGENNES, Viscount de, i. 109 n.
VERSAILLES, i. 216.
VESEY, Agmondesham, i. 229 «. ; ii.
137 »., 265.
VESEY, Mrs., i. 168 n. ; il. 12 n., 58,
200, 421 n.
Vesuvius Caesar, ii. 408.
VICTORIA, Queen, ii. 64 »., 305 n.
VIDA, i. 366.
VINE LEAVES, i. 113.
VIRGIL, Addison his Jupiter, i. 469 ;
described by Horace, i. 459 n. ; John
son read him, i. 70, 319 n. ; Milton's
diction, ii. 165 n. ; mode of composi
tion, i. 425; quoted Aeneid, i. 488;
ii. 170, 345, 353, 376 ; Georgics, ii.
364-
Visitants, i. 98 n.
Visitor, The, i. 413.
VOLTAIRE, acerrimi ingenii, ii. 308 ;
Addison's Cato, ii. 13 n. ; attacks on
authors, i. 271 n.; Benserade, i. 195 «.;
Candide, i. 472; ii. 74, 190 n. ; Ches
terfield, i. 406 n. \ gravity, i. 326 n. ;
Hume's style, ii. 10 ; Lewis XIV, ii.
354 ; Charles XII, ii. 306 ; music, ii.
308 n. ; Newton, i. 417 «.; ii. 360;
Shakespeare, ii. 307 ; Siam, King of,
i. 189 n. ; Thames boatman, i. 248 «.;
Thomas's Eloge, i. 434 n.
Vossius, i. 85.
Vows, i. 25, 299.
VYSE, Rev. Dr., ii. 453.
W.
WAKE, Archbishop, ii. 410 n.
WALES, ii. 54 n.
WALES, Prince of, ii. 93 n.
WALKER, — , i. 137.
WALLER, Edmund, i. 483 n. ; ii. 145,
153, 37i.
WALLER, Sir William, L 103.
WALMSLEY, Gilbert, i. 367-9; ii. 341,
416.
WALPOLE, Horace, Baron Walpole, ii.
342-
WALPOLE, Horace (fourth Earl of Or-
ford), ancient Romans,!. 20 i«. ; An-
son, Lord, i. 196^. ; Braganza, ii.
182 ; Buckinger, i. 188 n. ; Burgoyne,
ii. 26 n. ; Burke, ii. 23 «. ; Cock Lane
Ghost, ii. 355 n. ; Colebrooke, Sir G.,
i. 208 ». ; confuting, ii. 66 «., 438 «. ;
Dante, i. 333 n. ; dinner-hour, ii. 93 n. ;
Dodington, ii. 104 «.; Elliot, Dr., i.
431 n. ; father's maxim, ii. 309 n. ;
Garrick,ii. 240 «.; Gibbon, ii. 233 n.;
Gibraltar, i. 242 n. ; Grafton, Duke of,
i. 203 n. ; Guadagni, i. 197 ; Hawkins,
ii. 79; Hayley, ii. 420 «.; Heberden,
ii. i sow.; Hervey, Thomas, ii. 114 n.;
Hogarth, i. 240 n. ; Hottentot, i.
385 n.; Jenny's Whim, ii. 172 n. ;
Johnson's Debates, ii. 342 n. ; — Life
of Lyttelton, ii. 421 «.; — mad, i.
2i$n.',Junius,'\. \^in.\ King of Den
mark, i. i83».; Lennox, Lady Sarah,
ii. 31 n. ; Lennox, Mrs., ii. 99 n. ;
libels, i. 275 n. ; Macpherson's History,
ii. 39 »•; Malone's Shakespeare, ii.
23 n. ; Montagu, Lady M. W., ii.
175 n. ; Montagu, Mrs., ii. 272 «. ;
mystery, i. 326 n. ; old age, i. 231 «. ;
Piozzi's Anecdotes, i. 143, 153 n. ;
Pitt and Fox, ii. 458 n. ; Princes of
Wales, i. i8ow. ; ii. ngn.; prints, i.
214 w. ; prize-fighting, i. 475 n. ; public
affairs in 1779, ii. 54 «. ; Reynolds,
ii. 311 n. ; Robinson, Sir T., ii. 96 n. ;
satires on dead kings, ii. 35 n.; Seals,
value of the, i. 442 n. ; Sherlock's
Letters, ii. 363 n.\ speeches, i, 379 n.;
Tavistock, Lord, i. 252 n. ; Vesey,
Mrs., ii. 59; Zobeide, ii. 61 n.
WALPOLE, Sir Robert, Debates, i. 379;l-J
Johnson attacks him, i. 375 ; — De
bates, i. 378; —praises him, ii. 309;
Shippen, ii. 305.
WALSINGHAM, Admiral, ii. 68.
WALSINGHAM, Boyle, ii. 69 n.
WALTON, Isaac, ii. 128, 178.
WAR, ii. 16, 424.
WARBURTON, William, D.D., Bishop of
Gloucester, Addison as a critic, i.
469 ».; — and Pope, i. 482; discon
certed, ii. 99; epitaphs, ii. 378 n. ;
flounders well, ii. 33 J 5 Sreat powers,
ii. 140; Johnson meets him, ii. 317*
Shakespeare, i. 381; ii. 7, 33 r »-i
508
Index.
Warburton, William Williams, Anna.
learning, ii. 15; marriage, i. 300 «.;
Pope, vindicates, i. 374, 480 ; ridicule
and truth, i. 452 n. ; Shakespeare, i.
274 n., 381, 382 «., 473 ; ii. 20 n., 431 ;
Voltaire, ii. 308.
WARD, Seth, i. 329 n.
WARLEY COMMON, ii. 377.
WARNER, Rev. Richard, ii. 426.
WARRANTS, general, ii. 82.
WARREN, Dr., i. 445 ; ii. 23, 136, 137^.,
399-
WARREN, — , a bookseller, i. 364.
WARTON, Rev. Joseph, D.D., Addison's
Cato, ii. 1 3 «. ; Adventurer, i. 403 n. ;
Betterton, ii. 242 n. ; Freind's epitaphs,
ii. 378 n. ; Gray and Churchill, ii.
354 «.; Jane Shore, i. 284 n.; John
son's Messiah, i. 459 «. ; Literary Club,
ii. 30, 137 n. ; metaphysical poets, i.
478 n. ; Milton, ii. 195 n. ; Rymer,
i. 187 n. ; Temple and Pope, i. 466 n. ;
Winchester College, i. 280 n.
WARTON, Rev. Thomas, Johnson's paro
dies, i. 190 ; — degree, i. 404 ; Messiah,
i. 460 ; paper in the Idler, i. 471 n. ;
Hannah More, ii. 199; Spenser, ii. 372.
WASHINGTON, George, ii. 2 n.
WATSON, Richard, Bishop of Llandaff,
chemical lectures, i. 307 n , 439 ; dio
cese, ii. 199 n.', attack on Gibbon, ii.
66 n. ; Johnson visits him, ii. 405 ;
Test Act, ii. i93».
WATSON, — , i. 124.
WATTS, Isaac, devotional poetry, i. 2S^n.;
Hottentots, i. 384 n. ; Improvement of
the Mind, ii. 2; Johnson's Life, i.
487; sheltered, ii. 140 ».
WATTS, — , a printer, i. 482 n.
WEATHER, i. 288 n.
WEBSTER, Daniel, i. 330 n.
WEDDERBURNE, Alexander (Lord
Loughborough, Earl of Rosslyn),
Johnson's Debates, i. 378 ; ii. 342 n. ;
— pension, i. 417 ; rise, i. 349.
WELCH, Saunders, i. 85 «.
WELLINGTON, Duke of, Tennyson's Ode,
i. 296 n. ; autographs, i. 462 n. ; Ca
tholic Relief Bill, ii. 207 n.
WENTWORTH, Peter, i. 1347*.
WENTWORTH or WINKWORTH, i. 159^.,
361.
WESLEY, Rev. John, takes leave of
leisure, i. 5 n. ; preaches at St. Cle
ment's, i. 63 ; eminent, i. 300 n. ;
sister, ii. 147 n.; Dr. Dodd, ii. 282 n.
WEST, Benjamin, i. 131 n. ; ii. 388, 426.
WEST INDIES, i. 243 ; ii. 301.
WESTBY- GIBSON, Dr., ii. 340 n.
WESTCOTE, Lord, i. 342 n.
WESTMINSTER ABBEY, Johnson's funeral
and grave, i. 448; ii. 133, 136, 323,
378, 388 ; refuses to visit it, ii. 175.
WESTMINSTER BRIDGE, i. 336.
WETHERELL, Rev. Nathan, D.D., i. 71 ;
ii. 53, 406.
WHARTON, Marquis of, i. 174.
WHEAT, price of, ii. 86 «.
WHIGS, Trapp's and Browne's epigrams,
i. 171 ; the devil appearing to them,
i. 1 74 ; severity towards the poor, i.
204; Johnson's Debates, i. 379; —
prejudices, ii. 92 ; rascals, ii. 393.
WHITBY, — , i. 364 «.
WHITE, Rev. Henry, ii. 426 n.
WHITEFIELD, Rev. George, ii. 87 «.,
377 »•
WHITEHEAD, William, i. 220, 383.
Whole Duty of Man, i. 98.
WICKEDNESS, ii. 288.
WICKINS, — ii. 427.
WILCOX, — , i. 380.
WILDING, James, ii. 189 n.
WILKES, Israel, ii. 257 n.
WILKES, John, Boswell dines with him,
ii. 21 ; brother, ii. 257; described
by Lord Mansfield, ii. 373 n. ; dinner
at Dilly's, ii. 403 ; expelled House of
Commons, i. 425-6 ; Garrick, ii. 247 n. ;
general warrants, ii. 82 n. ; Johnson.
ii. 98 «., 373, 44o;Jumus, i. 172 n. ;
mentioned, ii. 74.
WILKINSON, Dr., ii. 56 n.
WILKINSON, Misses, ii. 171, 174.
WILLIAM III, Johnson's dislike of him,
i. 285 ; indifference to literature, i.
467 ; Irish rebellion, ii. 55 n.
WILLIAMS, Anna, death, i. 114, ii6».,
439 J "• 337 n. ; described by Miss
Hawkins, ii. 141 ; — by Lady Knight,
ii. 171-5 ; — by Hannah More, ii. 180 ;
— by Bishop Percy, ii. 217; — by
Miss Reynolds, ii. 293; Dictionary,
Index.
5°9
"Williams, Anna Zenobia, Count.
ii. 436; JOHNSON'S antics, ii. 273;
— house, inmate of, i. 401-3; ii.
115, 119, 259 «., 411 «.; leaves it,
i. 416; returns, i. 420; — takes tea
with her, ii. 326, 333 ; Miscellanies,
i. 403 ; ii. 172, 279 ». ; purity, ii. 438 ;
visits Percy, ii. 440 ; mentioned, i. 30,
106, 205 »., 391 n. ; ii. 129, 188, 298 ».,
442» 453-
V/ILLIAMS, Rev. — , ii. 405.
WILLIAMS, Zachariah, i. 401.
WILLS, ii. 124^.
WILLYMOT, — , i. 137.
WINDHAM, Right Hon. William, cancel
in Life of Johnson, ii. 34 n. ; character,
ii. 382 n.; Diary, ii. 382-8; Essex
Head Club, ii. 221 ; Johnson's death,
ii. 157 »., 158, 382-88 ; Literary Club,
ii. 25^., 32 ; Malone's Shakespeare, ii-
24 ; 'pretty rascal,' ii. 258/2.; mentioned,
i. 106, 303 «., 416 n. ; ii. 24, 36 n.
WINE, i. 321, 371 ».; ii. 44, 322, 333-
See under JOHNSON.
WlNSOR, Justin, LL.D., i. 402 n.
WINSTANLEY, Rev. Mr., ii. 204.
Winter's Walk, ii. 359 n.
WIT, i. 1 75 n.
WriVES, caprices, i. 250; 'honey- suckle,'
i. 264; choice of one, i. 314; ii. 309;
learned, ii. n.
WOFFINGTON, Margaret (Peg),ii. 239.
WOMEN, affecting learning, ii. 17;
amusements, i. 328; delight in sur
prising, i. 326 ; integrity, i. 327 ; men
desire to be liked by them, ii. 143, 326 ;
more genteel than men, ii. 243 n. ;
Papists, i. n6«. ; pecuniary favours,
i. 326 ; silence, ii. 303.
WOOD, Antony a, ii. 35 n.
WOOD, Robert, i. 213.
WOODHOUSE, — , i. 232.
WORDSWORTH, William, birth, contem
porary of Johnson, i. 150 n. • Dryden's
night, i. 187 n. ; Percy's Reliques, i.
192 n. ; metaphysical poets, i. 477 n. ;
Scotch historians, ii. ion.; anticipated
by Warton, ii. 13 n. ; Epistle to Beau
mont, ii. 233».
WORLD, wickedness exaggerated, i. 208,
262; 'the world,' i. 253; natural de
pravity, i. 207, 268, 328; its judge
ments, i. 315 ; ii. 143 ; where studied,
i. 324; well- constructed, i. 327; hap
piness, i. 334. See also under LIFE.
World, The, ii. 349, 351.
WORTLEY, Lady Mary, i. 319 ; ii. 175.
WOTY, — , i. 176 n.
WRAXALL, Sir Nathaniel, Amelia, i.
297 n. ; Blue Stockings, ii. 59 n. ; Dr.
Dodd, ii. 283 n. ; Mrs. Montagu, ii.
422.
WRIGHT, Richard, i. 125.
WRIGHT, — , i. 112.
WRITING FOR MONEY, i. 181 ; ii. 73, 90.
WYNNE, Sir Thomas and Lady, i. 264 n.
X.
XENOPHONji. 112, 162, 184.
Y.
YONGE, Sir William, i. 463.
YORKE, Sir Joseph, ii. 420 n.
YOUNG, Arthur, i. 150 »., 217*.. 302 n.
YOUNG, Rev. Edward, D.C.L., i. 84 n.,
186, 258, 344 w.; ii. 95 »., 368.
ZENOBIA, Count, ii. 158.
DICTA PHILOSOPHI
A CONCORDANCE OF JOHNSON'S SAYINGS
DICTA PHILOSOPHI
A CONCORDANCE OF JOHNSON'S SAYINGS1
Abilities Cock-boats.
ABILITIES. ' His abilities are just suffi
cient, Sir, to enable him to select the
black hairs from the white ones for the
use of the periwig-makers,' ii. 316.
ABSTINENCE. ' Abstinence is as easy to
me as temperance would be difficult,'
ii. 197.
ABUSE. 'Let us hear, Sir, no general
abuse ; the law is the last result of
human wisdom acting upon human
experience for the benefit of the public,'
i. 223.
APPETITE. * Whoever lays up his penny
rather than part with it for a cake at
least is not the slave of gross appetite,'
i. 251. 'A man who rides out for an
appetite consults but little the dignity
of human nature,' ii. 10.
ARGUMENT. ' You have nothing to do
with the motive of counsel, but you
ought to weigh their argument,' ii.
409.
AUTHOR. ' The best part of every author
is in general to be found in his book,'
ii. 310.
B.
BELLY. « As if one could fill one's belly
with hearing soft murmurs or looking
at rough cascades,' i. 323.
BLACKAMOOR. 'A talking blackamoor
were better than a white creature who
adds nothing to life, and by sitting
down before one thus desperately silent
takes away the confidence one should
have in the company of her chair if
she were once out of it,' i. 289.
BLEMISHES. ' No man takes upon himself
small blemishes without supposing that
great abilities are attributed to him,' ii.
153.
BOOK. ' A man may hide his head in a
hole ; he may go into the country, and
publish a book now and then which
nobody reads, and then complain he is
neglected,' i. 315. ' Books without the
knowledge of life are useless ; for what
should books teach but the art of
living?' i. 324.
BREAD-SAUCE. ' A Brussels trimming is
like bread-sauce; it takes away the
glow of colour from the gown and
gives you nothing instead of it,' i. 338.
BUSINESS. ' Fix on some business where
much money may be got and little
virtue risked,' i. 314.
CAP. ' When she wears a large cap I can
talk to her,' i. 338.
CATILINE. 'He talked to me at club
one day concerning Catiline's con
spiracy—so I withdrew my attention
and thought about Tom Thumb,' i. 203.
COCK-BOATS. « I have sailed a long and
painful voyage round the world of the
English language; and does he now
send out two cock-boats to tow me into
harbour ? ' i. 405.
i In this Concordance are not included those of Johnson's sayings which have been
already given in the Dicta Philosophi at the end of the sixth volume c
VOL. II. L !
Dicta Philosophi.
Complainer Female.
COMPLAINER. ' I hate a complainer,' ii.
140. ' Complainers are always lond
and clamorous,' ii. 20.
CONCEALMENT. 'Those who begin by
concealment of innocent things will
soon have something to hide which
they dare not bring to light,' i. 326.
CONVERSATION. « Do not be like the
spider, man, and spin conversation thus
incessantly out of thy own bowels,' i.
276. « Why, Sir, his conversation does
not show the minute hand, but he
strikes the hour very correctly,' ii.
169.
CREAKED. ' When a door has creaked
for a fortnight together, you may ob
serve the master will scarcely give six
pence to get it oiled/ i. 264.
D.
DEATH. « When Death's pale horse runs
away with persons on full speed an
active physician may possibly give them
a turn ; but if he carries them on an even
slow pace, down hill too, no care nor
skill can save them,' i. 276.
DECEPTION. * Sir, don't tell me of de
ception ; a lie, Sir, is a lie, whether it
be a lie to the eye or a lie to the ear,'
ii. 428.
DEGENERATING. ' To get cows from
Alderney or waterfowl from China only
to see nature degenerating round one
is a poor ambition indeed,' i. 324.
DELICACY. c Delicacy does not surely
consist in impossibility to be pleased,'
i. 329.
DELICATE. 'If a wench wants a good
gown do not give her a fine smelling-
bottle because that is more delicate,'
i. 326.
DESPISES. < No man thinks much of that
which he despises,' ii. 245.
DIGNITY. ' Why, Madam, if a creature
is neither capable of giving dignity to
falsehood, nor is willing to remain
contented with the truth, he deserves
no better treatment,' i. 243.
DINNER. ' A man is in general better
pleased when he has a good dinner
upon his table than when his wife talks
Greek,' ii. ii.
DISGRACE. « That dunce of a fellow
helped forward the general disgrace of
humanity,' i. 294.
DISLIKE. ' Lasting dislike is often the
consequence of occasional disgust,' i.
246.
DIVERSION. « You hunt in the morning
and crowd to the public rooms at night,
and call it diversion ; when your heart
knows it is perishing with poverty of
pleasures, and your wits get blunted
for want of some other mind to sharpen
them upon,' i. 324.
DOGMATISE. ' I dogmatise and am con
tradicted, and in this conflict of opinions
and sentiments I find delight/ ii. 92.
DONE. < Where there is nothing to be
done something must be endured/ i.
210.
DOUBT. ' My dear, I must always doubt
of that which has not yet happened/
ii. 207.
DWARF. ' Chesterfield ought to know me
better than to think me capable of
contracting myself into a dwarf that he
may be thought a giant/ i. 405.
E.
EASE. ' Contented with the exchange of
fame for ease he e'en resolves to let
them set the pillows at his back, and
gives no further proof of his existence
than just to suck the jelly that prolongs
it,' i. 282.
EYES. « The eyes of the mind are like
the eyes of the body, they can see but
at such a distance. But because we
cannot see beyond this point, is there
nothing beyond it ? ' ii. 287.
F.
FEMALE. ' And this is the voice of female
friendship, I suppose, when the hand
of the hangman would be softer/ i.
Dicta Philosophi.
Folio Manner.
FOLIO. ' No man reads long together
with a folio on his table,' ii. 2.
FORGOTTEN. ' I hope the day will never
arrive when I shall be the object of
neither calumny nor ridicule, for then
I shall be neglected and forgotten,' ii.
420.
FRIENDS. ' We must either outlive our
friends or our friends must outlive us ;
and I see no man that would hesitate
about the choice,' i. 230.
G.
GAIETY. * Those who resist gaiety will
be likely for the most part to fall a
sacrifice to appetite,' i. 219.
GENIUS. 'Never ask a baby of seven
years old which way his genius leads
him, when we all know that a boy of
seven years old has no genius for any
thing except a peg-top and an apple-
pie,' i. 314.
GUINEAS. ' Why did not the King make
these halfpence guineas ? ' i. 172.
H.
HELL. ' I do allow him just enough
\lumilres\ to light him to hell/ i.
211.
HOARDING. ' A fellow must do some
thing ; and what so easy to a narrow
mind as hoarding halfpence till they
turn into sixpences?' i. 251.
HONOUR. ' Well, Sir ; if you do not see
the honour I am sure I feel the dis
grace,' i. 285.
HOPE. 'Hope is an amusement rather
than a good, and is adapted to none but
very tranquil minds,' i. 278.
HUNTING. 'Hunting is the labour of
the savages of North America, but
the amusement of the gentlemen of
England/ ii. 170.
I.
IGNORANCE. ' Ignorance to a wealthy
lad of one-and-twenty is only so much
fat to a sick sheep ; it just serves to
call the rooks about him/ i. 281.
L
LACED. ' If every man who wears a laced
coat, that he can pay for, was extirpated,
who would miss them ? ' i. 253.
LIFE. ' Life is a pill which none of us
can bear to swallow without gilding ;
yet for the poor we delight in strip
ping it still barer, and are not ashamed
to show even visible displeasure if ever
the bitter taste is taken from their
mouths/ i. 205 ; ' Life must be filled
up, and the man who is not capable of
intellectual pleasures must content him
self with such as his senses can afford/
i. 251 ; 'Life is barren enough surely
with all her trappings ; let us therefore
be cautious how we strip her/ i. 345.
LITERATURE. ' A mere literary man is
a dull man ; a man who is solely a man
of business is a selfish man ; but when
literature and commerce are united they
make a respectable man/ ii. 389.
LONDON. ' W7hoever has once experi
enced the full flow of London talk,
when he retires to country friendships
and rural sports, must either be con
tented to turn baby again and play
with the rattle, or he will pine away
like a great fish in a little pond, and
die for want of his usual food/ i. 324.
LOVE. ' Love is the wisdom of a fool
and the folly of the wise/ ii. 393.
LOVER. ' The companion of the easy
vacant hour, whose compliance with
a girl's opinions can flatter her vanity,
and whose conversation can just soothe,
without ever stretching her mind, that
is the lover to be feared/ i. 220.
LUXURIOUS. ' Depend upon it, Sir, every
state of society is as luxurious as it can
be/ ii. 97.
LUMPS. ' One cannot love lumps of flesh,
andlittle infants are nothing more/ i. 328.
M.
MAD. 'Five hours of the four and
twenty unemployed are enough for a
man to go mad in/ i. 301.
MANNER. 'A new manner of writing!
516
Dicta Philosophi.
Manuscript Scoundrel.
Buckinger had no hands, and he wrote
his name with his toes at Charing
Cross for half a crown apiece ; that
was a new manner of writing,' i. 419.
MANUSCRIPT. ' Praise is the tribute
which every man is expected to pay
for the grant of perusing a manu
script,' ii. 192.
MARRY. ' A man should marry first, for
virtue ; secondly, for wit ; thirdly, for
beauty ; and fourthly, for money,' ii. 8.
MEAN. ' Sir, if you mean nothing, say
nothing,' ii. 400.
MEAT. ' What signifies going thither ?
There is neither meat, drink, nor talk,'
ii. 14.
MIRROR. 'They see men who have
merited their advancement by the ex
ertion and improvement of those talents
which God had given them ; and I see
not why they should avoid the mirror,'
i- 349-
MIRTH. ' The size of a man's under
standing may always be justly measured
by his mirth,' i. 345.
MONKEY. ' Let him be absurd, I beg of
you ; when a monkey is too like a man,
it shocks one,' i. 204.
MONEY. ' Why, the men are thinking on
their money, I suppose, and the women
are thinking on their mops,' i. 253.
Music. ' Music excites in my mind
no ideas, and hinders me from contem
plating my own,' ii. 103 ; ' Music is the
only sensual pleasure without vice,' ii.
301. 'Difficult do you call it, Sir?
I wish it were impossible,' ii. 308.
MYSTERY. ' Where secrecy or mystery
begins, vice or roguery is not far off,'
ii. i.
O.
OCEAN. 'Never mind it, Sir ; perhaps your
friend spells ocean with an s,' ii. 404.
P.
PAINTING. ' I had rather see the por
trait of a dog that I know than all the
allegorical paintings they can show me
in the world,' ii. 15.
PHLEBOTOMISED. ' You might as well
bid him tell you who phlebotomised
Romulus,' i. 294.
PLANTS. ' He who plants a forest may
doubtless cut down a hedge ; yet I
could wish, methinks, that even he
would wait till he sees his young plants
grow,' i. 345.
POKER. ' Why yes, Sir, they '11 do any
thing, no matter how odd or desperate,
to gain their point ; they '11 catch hold
of the red-hot end of a poker sooner
than not get possession of it,' ii. 397.
PULSE. ' This man has a pulse in his
tongue,' ii. 1 8.
PUPPY. ' When in anger my mother
called me a puppy, I asked her if she
knew what they called a puppy's
mother,' i. 163.
R.
RATTLE-BOX. 'There certainly is no
harm in a fellow's rattling a rattle-
box ; only don't let him think that he
thunders,' i. 286.
RELIGION. ' A principle of honour or
fear of the world will many times keep
a man in decent order ; but when a
woman loses her religion she, in
general, loses the only tie that will
restrain her actions,' ii. 309.
RESENTMENT. ' The cup of life is surely
bitter enough without squeezing in the
hateful rind of resentment,' i. 246.
S.
SCONCED. ' Sir, you have sconced me
twopence for non-attendance at a lec
ture not worth a penny,' i. 164.
SCOTLAND. 'I give you leave to say,
and you may quote me for it, that there
are more gentlemen in Scotland than
there are shoes,' ii. 77.
SCOUNDREL. ' It is so very difficult for
a sick man not to be a scoundrel,' i.
267; 'Ready to become a scoundrel,
Madam ; with a little more spoiling
you will, I think, make me a complete
rascal,' ib. ; 'A man is a scoundrel
that is afraid of anything,' ii. 4 ; 'Who-
Dicta Philosophi.
Scruples Written.
ever thinks of going to bed before
twelve o'clock is a scoundrel,' ii. 19.
SCRUPLES. 'Scruples would certainly
make men miserable, and seldom make
them good,' i. 223.
SENTIMENTAL. ' The poor and the busy
have no leisure for sentimental sorrow,'
i. 252.
SILVER. ' If silver is dirty it is not the
less valuable for a good scouring,' ii.
414.
SOLITARY. * The solitary mortal is cer
tainly luxurious, probably superstitious,
and possibly mad,' i. 219.
SOLITUDE. 'Solitude is dangerous to
reason without being favourable to
virtue/ i. 219.
STORY. ' A story is a specimen of
human manners, and derives its sole
value from its truth,' i. 225.
SUFFER. ' She will suffer as much per
haps as your horse did when your cow
miscarried,' i. 207.
SUNDAY. 'While half the Christian
world is permitted to dance and sing,
and celebrate Sunday as a day of
festivity, how comes your puritanical
spirit so offended with frivolous and
empty deviations from exactness?'
i. 301.
SWIM. ' No man, I suppose, leaps at
once into deep water who does not
know how to swim/ i. 165.
T.
TAVERN. 'No, Sir; there is nothing
which has yet been contrived by man
by which so much happiness is produced
as by a good tavern or inn/ ii. 253.
TEA. ' Sir, I did not count your glasses
of wine ; why should you number up
my cups of tea?' ii. 75.
TELL. ' A man can tell but what he
knows, and I never got any further than
the first page/ i. 332.
TIMIDITY. ' How many men in a year
die through the timidity of those whom
they consult for health !' ii. 132.
U.
UNDER-DRESSED. 'No person goes
under-dressed till he thinks himself of
consequence enough to forbear carry
ing the badge of his rank upon his
back/ i. 221.
UNDERSTANDING. ' You feed the
chickens till you starve your own un
derstanding/ i. 323.
V.
VIRTUES. ' Sir, these minor virtues are
not to be exercised in matters of such
importance as this/ ii. 124.
W.
WHIG. ' Take it upon my word and ex
perience that where you see a W7hig
you see a rascal/ ii. 393.
WOLF. 'The wolf does not count the
sheep/ i. 168.
WOMAN. 'In matters of business no
woman stops at integrity/ i. 327.
WORLD. ' He is a scholar undoubtedly ;
but remember that he would run from
the world, and that it is not the world's
business to run after him/ i. 315;
' Where is the world into which I was
born?' ii. 207; 'I thought it wiser
and better to take the world as it goes/
ii. 259.
WRITES. ' Every man who writes thinks
he can amuse or inform mankind, and
they must be the best judges of his
pretensions,' ii. 7.
WRITINGS. ' Never mind whether they
praise or abuse your writings ; anything
is tolerable except oblivion/ ii. 207.
WRITTEN. 'What is written without
effort is in general read without plea
sure/ ii. 309.
THE END.
OXFORD
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
BY HORACE HART, M.A.
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY
eawe
Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.; in
cluding BOSWELL'S Journal of a Tour to the
Hebrides, and JOHNSON'S Diary of a Journey
into North Wales. In six volumes, 8vo, with
Portraits and Facsimiles. Half-roan, 3/. 35.
Letters of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. Collected
and Edited. In two volumes, medium 8vo,
half-roan (uniform with Boswell's Life of John
son), 285.
Basselas. Edited with Introduction and Notes.
Extra fcap. 8vo, bevelled boards, 35. 6d. ; in
Parchment, 45. 6d.
Wit and Wisdom of Samuel Johnson. Crown
8vo, 75. 6d.
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
LONDON : HENRY FROWDE, M.A.
OXFOKD UNIVERSITY PRESS WAREHOUSE, AMEN CORNER, E.C.
PR
3533
v.2
cop. 2
Hill, George Birkbeck Norman
(ed.)
Johnsonian miscellanies
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11